By: Rachel Handley | wwltv.com | December 5, 2024
NEW ORLEANS — The NOPD is searching for a suspect it said rammed a police unit Wednesday night. Its Public Integrity Bureau is also investigating one of the officers inside the unit who fired at the suspect’s car before it sped off, as it is required to do anytime an officer discharges their gun.
The incident happened around 6:30 p.m. The NOPD said in a release that the officers spotted the car, determined it was stolen, and followed it.
Then, when the suspect’s car stopped at the intersection of Basin and St. Louis Streets, the NOPD said it backed into the officers’ unit. One of the officers fired at the car. It then ran into an SUV parked on the corner and took off toward the interstate.
Late Wednesday night, the NOPD said it had found the car, but it has not yet named a suspect.
In its release, the NOPD also said someone from the Office of the Independent Police Monitor and the Federal Consent Decree Monitor were at the scene of the shooting. The NOPD has been under the consent decree for more than a decade.
It gives the federal government more oversight into its practices and was enacted after an investigation found a pattern of unconstitutional practices over a period of years.
The consent decree does not allow NOPD officers to chase cars except under specific circumstances and only with supervisors’ permission. The department noted that the officers did not speed up or turn on their lights when they followed the suspects’ car Wednesday night.
The decree also prohibits officers from shooting at moving cars except under certain circumstances, such as when someone inside is “using deadly force, other than the vehicle itself, against the officer or another person.”
The NOPD’s account of the incident implies that the suspects’ car was stopped when the officer fired. Even if it was not, however, Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche believes investigators will still find the officer was justified in their decision to fire.
“The officer at that time knows that this suspect just rammed his vehicle. They don’t know if they’re going to do it again or if they’re going to discharge a firearm,” he told WWL Louisiana Thursday.
The incident happened at a time when the NOPD appeared close to getting out from under the consent decree.
Goyeneche does not believe it will have any impact on that process, even if investigators were to find any wrongdoing.
“The consent decree was put in place because of a pattern or practice– multiple instances of the police department not applying their policies, rules and procedures,” he said.
Because there are crime cameras and several establishments that may have security footage in the area, he does not believe the investigation will take long.
The next and last public court hearing on the consent decree is scheduled for Dec. 17.