NEW ORLEANS, July 14 (UPI) -- Three New Orleans police officers accused in the fatal Danziger Bridge shootings following 2005's Hurricane Katrina pleaded innocent Wednesday in federal court.
Sgt. Kenneth Bowen, Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officer Anthony Villavaso attended the hearing before federal Magistrate Judge Louis Moore, clad in green jumpsuits stenciled with "Federal Inmate," in handcuffs and leg shackles, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported.
A fourth defendant, former New Orleans officer Robert Faulcon, was arrested in Texas Tuesday for the shooting deaths of two men in the incident, but was not in federal court, The Times Picayune said.
A federal grand jury Tuesday indicted the four New Orleans police officers and two supervisors in the shootings.
Bowen, Gisevius, Faulcon and Villavaso are charged in two shootings that left two people dead and four others wounded. They, along with supervisors Arthur Kaufman and Gerard Dugue, also are charged with helping to obstruct justice during investigations into the shootings. The officers are accused of shooting at an unarmed family on the east side of the bridge, killing 17-year-old James Brissette, and wounding Susan Bartholomew, 38; Leonard Bartholomew III, 44; the Bartholomew's daughter, Lesha, 17; and the Bartholomew's nephew, Jose Holmes, 19. The Bartholomews' 14-year-old son escaped uninjured.
In a second shooting shortly after on the west side of the bridge, officers allegedly shot at brothers Lance and Ronald Madison, killing Ronald, a 40-year-old man with severe mental disabilities. The indictment alleges Faulcon shot Ronald Madison in the back as he fled. Bowen is charged with stomping and kicking Ronald Madison who was wounded but had not yet died.
Five other former officers, Michael Hunter, Robert Barrios, Ignatius Hills, Michael Lohman and Jeffrey Lehrmann, have pleaded guilty in the incident, as well.
