New Orleans Police Kill Blackman

Hayes visited the Burger King for the last time Monday, shortly before the 3 p.m. confrontation, she said. He left and headed up the street in the direction of a Walgreen’s drugstore a block away. There, he apparently became involved in an argument. The incident began when Hayes' credit card was rejected at the drug store. Mr. Hayes is said to then have punched or slapped a manager. A customer who in the store was quoted in the local newspaper said that Mr. Hayes swung at the employee but did not hurt him seriously.

The entire confrontation was caught on tape by several witnesses of the incident. The tape shows about a dozen officers in the street and on the neutral ground confronting the man, with their weapons leveled at him. On the video Mr. Hayes is shown being peppered spread, waving his arms at the officers and keeping his distance. Ironically, all of the eyewitnesses who captured the footage of the incident failed to record the actual shooting. One of the videographers said he stopped taping when the police and Mr. Hayes moved behind a tree, which obscured his view. He left his position to run outdoors to get a better view, before he was able to do so he heard the shots.

Another videographer who was home to survey the damage her home experienced due to Hurricane Katrina was quoted in the local newspaper as saying, “There were so many cops there I thought, surely, this guy just shot a cop. At first it was real quiet and slow, then faster and faster as more cops showed up. Then one gun went off and then a whole bunch went off.  I think it was an injustice. That guy shouldn't have died.”  She went on to say that the final seconds of the confrontation occurred too far away for her to see, but the notion that Hayes attacked the officers did not seem consistent with the behavior that she saw while he was nearer to her.

On Wednesday, December 28, 2005, the newly sworn in New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Warren Riley held a press conference to address the shooting. Superintendent Riley said that the officers who were on scene followed their training and that the officers were not equipped with electric stun guns. Riley said in the three to three-and-a-half minutes the incident lasted, officers did not have time to call a special unit that deals with mental patients. He said the department will review the incident for potential lessons, but given the circumstances, “I do believe it was handled as best it could be at the time.”  Mr. Riley went on to further say that no city, state or federal law enforcement agency trains its men to shoot merely to wound assailants at the moment of an assault.

On December 29, 2005, a group of community activists and clergy held a press conference outside of the temporary police headquarters to state their displeasure about the shooting of Mr. Hayes by members of the New Orleans Police Department. The New Orleans Representative of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan also participated in the morning press conference. “Anyone watching the video footage could easily tell that Mr. Hayes had some mental challenges. How is it that a man with a loaded gun in front of the White House can fire several shots and then point the gun at Secret Service agents. After fourteen minutes of trying to persuade him to drop his weapon, the agents decided they had no choice but to shoot him. Thus they shot him in the leg! Yet a mentally ill man with a three inch knife surrounded by twelve to sixteen cops lost his life after being shot nine times after trying to get him to drop his knife after three and a half minutes. We are here to make sure the concerns of the community are heard and to encourage the NOPD during this post-Katrina New Orleans rebuilding process to review the use of deadly force policy”, stated Minister Willie Muhammad.

Directly after the press conference the clergy and community members met with Superintendent Warren Riley for nearly two hours to discuss the shooting. The meeting was a closed door meeting with the Superintendent and some of his brass. After the meeting Superintendent and the community members came out to address the media. They said that despite having some issues they did not agree on; the overall meeting was positive. “The meeting was very fruitful and productive. On a national level we want to work to get the deadly force policy changed and locally we are planning to put before the New Orleans City Council the proposal for an independent review process,” stated Rev. Norwood Thompson of Jesus Never Fails Church and a Co-Convener for the Millions More Movement.

The superintendent agreed to review other non-lethal weapon options that can be utilized by officers, to meet with community members within 72 hours after a conflict involving the police and the community and said that he supported the groups desire to have an independent review board that will come in an investigate charges of misconduct. Brother Parnell Herbert, a New Orleans community activist and a member of the New Orleans Local Organizing Committee who participated in the closed door meeting had the following to say about the closed door meeting, “The meeting was productive. The superintendent expressed a desire to work with the community. I feel that his intent is good and hopefully we can fulfill the tentative agreements that were made today.”