Lawyer: No threats as officers killed boy
Police body camera shows child’s dad with his hands up
MARKSVILLE, La. — A police body camera recorded the father of a 6-year-old autistic boy with his hands up and posing no threat as police fired into his car, severely wounding the motorist and killing his son, the man’s lawyer said Monday.
“This was not a threatening situation for the police,” said Mark Jeansonne, an attorney for Chris Few, who remained hospitalized and could not attend Monday’s funeral of his son, Jeremy Mardis.
Derrick Stafford, 32, of Mansura, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, of Marksville, were ordered held on $1 million bail Monday on second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder charges, Jeansonne said.
The lawyer said he hasn’t seen the video himself, but its contents were described during the hearing. Louisiana’s state police chief, Col. Mike Edmonson, said Friday that “it’s the most disturbing thing I’ve seen — and I will leave it at that.”
Few’s condition was improving Monday, but he had not been told as of midday that his son is dead, Jeansonne said. His stepfather, Morris German, said last week that Few had bullet fragments in his brain and lung.
Greenhouse is the son of a top assistant prosecutor for District Attorney Charles A. Riddle, who recused himself from the case on Monday, calling it “not good for any of us.”
Judge William Bennett set the officers’ bail during a hearing he held inside the jail after refusing media requests to open the proceedings. No transcripts were made available, and the judge later issued a sweeping gag order prohibiting anyone involved in the case, including potential witnesses and victims, from providing information to the media.
Investigators have not suggested that race is a factor in the shooting. Booking records describe the officers as African-American; no available records describe the race of the father and son.
Stafford is a Marksville police lieutenant; Greenhouse is a city marshal. Both were on marshal duty Tuesday night. Initial reports suggested they were trying to serve Few with a warrant when he fled onto a dead-end road and then reversed his car in their direction at about 9:30 p.m.
But Edmonson said there was no evidence of a warrant, nor any gun at the scene.
The officers were moved from the jail in Marksville to a lockup in the central Louisiana city of Alexandria after Monday’s bond hearing, for reasons no one would explain, citing the gag order.