NOPD to release body-cam footage of deadly encounter

In the midst of a federally mandated consent decree aimed at bringing the agency up to federal standards for constitutional policing that began in August 2013, NOPD officials announced last week that the police department would release body-camera footage of an officer-involved death that occurred Wednesday.

The move to release body-camera footage so soon after the incident is generally seen as a far cry from an incident just several years ago during which a female NOPD officer turned off her body camera before shooting a suspect in the head. That incident went unreported by the NOPD for 24 hours and ultimately led to the resignation of then NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas.

According to the NOPD, a man died early Wednesday morning, Oct. 3, hours after he was detained by police in the Bywater.

NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison told reporters during a Wednesday press conference that the cause of death was not known, but added that no excessive force was used and officials believe it was a “medical incident.”

Around 10 p.m. Tuesday night, police were reportedly called to the 800 block of Independence Street after a neighbor reported a man was screaming for help and holding a “shiny object.” The man ran away before officers arrived, Harrison said, and while they were looking for him police were alerted to a burglary in progress a few blocks away on Dauphine Street.

When officers arrived, the man was standing in a driveway in the 3400 block of Dauphine Street, armed with a knife and bleeding from the lip. Officers ordered the man to drop the weapon multiple times before he complied, Harrison said. The man started to approach the officers, but fell to the ground. When officers tried to handcuff the man, he started kicking at them, according to Harrison. The officers held the man’s legs down and were able to restrain him, Harrison said, but no other force was used.

The officers called EMS to the scene to treat the man for his existing injuries, Harrison said, but the man stopped breathing before they arrived. In an attempt to revive him, one of the officers administered the overdose-reversing drug Narcan, but the man did not wake up. For the next 10 minutes, officers performed CPR, alongside a registered nurse who lives nearby.

The man was transported to Tulane University Hospital in “unstable and serious condition,” Harrison said. He was pronounced dead around 2 a.m. at the hospital.
Harrison said all three of the responding officers’ body cameras were reviewed by an independent police monitor and the footage showed they, “acted appropriately and went above and beyond” in their effort to save the man’s life. The footage shows the officers appeared to know the man, Harrison said, and they called him by his first name while trying to calm him down when they first arrived at the scene, as well as when they were attempting to revive him.

“You could clearly see that they knew him, and were effected emotionally by this and they were working hard [to save his life],” Harrison said.

An autopsy is pending, Harrison said, and the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office will identify the man and determine his cause of death in the coming days. It was not immediately known if the man has a criminal record. None of the officers were injured, Harrison said.

Harrison said a full review of the incident is in progress and will take about nine days to complete. As of Wednesday, all of the officers are still active and assigned to the 5th District.

This article originally published in the October 8, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.