Baton Rouge shootings: 'Person of interest' released from jail after drug arrest
A 23-year-old white man whom police called a “person of interest” in the fatal shootings of two black men in Baton Rouge has been released from jail after his arrest on drug charges over the weekend.
Sgt Don Coppola, a Baton Rouge police department spokesman, said on Monday that Kenneth Gleason “has not been cleared” and remains a “person of interest” in the shootings. A homicide detective’s report described Gleason as a “suspect” in the case.
The shootings happened about five miles from each other. The first occurred on Tuesday night when 59-year-old Bruce Cofield, who was homeless, was shot dead. On Thursday night, 49-year-old Donald Smart was killed while walking to his job as a dishwasher at a cafe popular with Louisiana State University students.
Sgt L’Jean McKneely, another police spokesman, has said there is a “strong possibility” that the shootings were racially motivated. On Monday, the interim police chief, Jonny Dunnam, said in a text message that investigators “still don’t know for sure what the possible motive is”.
Gleason was released on $3,500 bond late on Sunday. The East Baton Rouge district attorney Hillar Moore said he did not know if Gleason had an attorney.
Detectives searched Gleason’s home on Saturday and found nine grams of marijuana and vials of human growth hormone, according to the detective’s report. After Gleason was read his Miranda rights, he claimed ownership of the drugs, the document said.
McKneely said on Sunday that shell casings from the shootings linked them and a car belonging to Gleason fit the description of the vehicle police were looking for. He said authorities had collected other circumstantial evidence but he would not say what it was.
In both shootings, the gunman fired from his car then walked up to the victims as they were lying on the ground and fired again multiple times, according to McKneely, who said neither victim had any prior relationship with Gleason.
Smart’s aunt, Mary Smart, said Smart had a son and two daughters. She declined to comment on the police suggestion that her nephew might have been shot because of the color of his skin.
“I cannot say,” she said. “Only God knows.”
Terrell Griffin, 49, has a food stand in a parking lot less than a block from where Cofield was shot. He said he was friends with Cofield and heard the shots that killed him. Griffin waited for the gunfire to quiet before he ran over, to find his friend lying face-down on the ground.
He described Cofield as a smart man and said he thought he was an engineer but had been homeless for
at least a year.
“He didn’t bother nobody,” Griffin
said. “It’s not right.”