workingclasshistory:

On this day, 4 September 2005, in the wake of hurricane Katrina the Danziger Bridge shootings took place, when several New Orleans police officers opened fire with assault weapons on an unarmed African-American family. The Bartholomews were on their way to a grocery store when plainclothed police with machine guns shot six of them, killing two and then stomping on one of the victims. Some of the victims were shot up to 7 times and lost limbs. One man was shot five times in the back and a teenage girl was shot four times. The police then fabricated a story claiming they had been fired on by four suspects, an officer had been shot and had to return fire. They even arrested one of the survivors and charged him with eight counts of attempting to kill police. The officer in charge of investigating the shootings helped fabricate evidence to support the shooters’ lies. Guilty verdicts for the killers were handed down in 2011, 6 years after the crimes.
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