Man who admitted fatally shooting former NFL player is freed
into violence because someone “recklessly” cut off the other while driving on a bridge.
The decision to release Mr. Gasser, who is white, infuriated supporters and former teammates of Mr. McKnight, who was black, and they took to social media to express outrage.
Sheriff Normand, appearing at times defiant and frustrated before reporters Friday in Harvey, La., said officials would be very deliberate in the investigation, that witnesses were still being located and interviewed, and that people planning to protest must do it within a designated area or they would be jailed.
“This investigation is not going to be moved, influenced, coerced or changed in any way by any external force, comments or otherwise,” he said. “I can’t control what’s on the social networks, and if we want to continue to be silly, that’s fine.”
Asked if the case would be investigated as a hate crime, Sheriff Normand said there was no evidence yet to suggest that it should be. “Everybody wants to make this about race,” he said. “This isn’t about race.”
Asked why Mr. Gasser was freed if he had admitted to the shooting, he said that in Louisiana there were some “relative statutes that provide defenses to certain crimes” and that the authorities would need to determine whether the shooting was justified.
He said that a man who had raised Mr. McKnight used to work as a deputy in the sheriff’s office and that some employees were “close with his family.” It was not immediately clear to whom he was referring; a 2007 profile in The Los Angeles Times said Mr. McKnight was raised by his mother, Jennifer McKnight.
Sheriff Normand disputed several rumors that had spread on social media, including that Mr. Gasser had stood over Mr. McKnight as he fired the gun, that a video has been recovered and that a witness had said Mr. McKnight apologized to Mr. Gasser before the shooting.
All of those are false, he said, and he advised people to believe only what they heard from officials like himself and the district attorney. “I strongly suggest you stop believing what you’re reading,” he said.
Councilman Mark Spears, who also spoke at the news conference, said: “It shouldn’t be a rush to judgment. The facts are still coming out, and we should base it on facts, not on Facebook and other social media.” He also said officials were “praying” for the McKnight family.
In a statement released before the news conference, the sheriff’s office said Mr. Gasser had handed over a semi-automatic handgun to officers at the scene. The sheriff said at the news conference that Mr. Gasser had fired three rounds from inside his vehicle.
At a news conference, local NAACP officials criticized the authorities for releasing Mr. Gasser, pledging to demonstrate peacefully.
“We think a black man was lynched yesterday,” said Morris Reed, the president of the New Orleans branch of the NAACP “We are demanding some answers.”