NEW ORLEANS, March 31 (UPI) -- Two former New Orleans police officers have been sentenced to prison terms in the shooting death of a man in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
David Warren was sentenced to more than 25 years for the shooting of 31-year-old Henry Glover, while Greg McRae, who admitted burning a parked car that contained Glover's body, was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported Thursday.
Warren was convicted in December of violating Glover's civil rights by shooting him while guarding a police substation on Sept. 2, 2005.
Warren shot Glover as he approached the substation on the second floor of a strip mall where Glover and a friend had gone to retrieve some items looted by friends.
U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, in imposing the sentence, said Warren's use of deadly force was unnecessary and that Warren's claim that Glover charged at him in a menacing way was "spurious."
"You killed a man ... Henry Glover was gunned down because you believed he was a looter," Africk said.
After Glover was shot, he was picked up by William Tanner, a good Samaritan who drove him to a nearby police encampment for medical aid.
Tanner and others said police there took them into custody instead of providing aid to the wounded Glover.
Later, officers drove away in Tanner's car, with Glover's body inside. McRae admitted during his trial that he parked the car on the levee and burned it.
The judge called McRae's conduct "barbaric," saying it was "unforgivable" to burn Glover's body.
