NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on New Orleans police officer killed (all times local): 6:30 p.m. New Orleans’ police chief says that early reviews of video indicate that a police officer was shot and killed during a struggle rather
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Latest on New Orleans police officer killed (all times local):
6:30 p.m.
New Orleans’ police chief says that early reviews of video indicate that a police officer was shot and killed during a struggle rather than at a distance.
During an afternoon news conference, Superintendent Michael Harrison says that after Officer Marcus McNeil got out of his patrol car early Friday, there was an “encounter” and a struggle during which he was shot.
Harrison did not give any details. Harrison said a man opened fire after officers got out of a vehicle to check out something suspicious.
The chief said earlier accounts came from what he described as a generic “public safety statement,” and the officers have not yet been formally interviewed.
Thirty-year-old Darren Bridges, a New Orleans man on parole after a weapons conviction, has been accused of the shooting.
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4:45 p.m.
A Louisiana corrections spokesman says the African-American man accused of killing an African-American New Orleans police officer was out on parole after a weapons conviction.
Ken Pastorick says 30-year-old Darren Bridges had been sentenced to 6½ years in 2012 for attempted possession of a firearm by a felon. He had previous battery and marijuana convictions, all in New Orleans.
Pastorick says parole supervision would have ended next June.
But now Bridges is accused of killing 29-year-old Officer Marcus McNeil.
Police say McNeil and three other officers got out of patrol cars early Friday to investigate something suspicious. They say Bridges shot McNeil several times, and one or more officers fired back, hitting Bridges.
Police say Bridges hid in an apartment but surrendered after negotiations, and is hospitalized under arrest.
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2:30 p.m.
The New Orleans police chief says he’s proud that officers mourning their slain comrade were able to negotiate the peaceful surrender of the man accused of shooting him.
Superintendent Michael Harrison says the 30-year-old felon, Darren Bridges, will face a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Officer Marcus McNeil.
During a news conference broadcast live Friday, Harrison said he knows only a few details, because the investigation’s just starting.
But he says McNeil was among four officers patrolling together in two cars. He says they saw something suspicious and got out to investigate, and McNeil was shot.
Harrison says investigators are looking at video from body cameras and neighborhood security cameras, and wants anyone who knows of other videos or evidence in the case to come forward.
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2 p.m.
The New Orleans police officer fatally shot on patrol early Friday was the fifth to die in the line of duty over the past four years, and the second who was shot. Three others were hit by cars as they worked traffic wrecks and a car fire.
New Orleans Police say 29-year-old Officer Marcus McNeil was shot and killed when he and three other officers on routine patrol got out of their car to investigate something suspicious shortly after midnight.
School officials say the married father of two was a 2010 graduate in accounting from Dillard University, and a 2006 graduate of St. Augustine High School. Both schools are in New Orleans.
The last officer who had been shot to death — Officer Daryle Holloway — also was a graduate of St. Augustine.
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10:30 a.m.
New Orleans police say the officer shot and killed while on patrol early Friday was 29 years old and leaves a wife and two children, aged 5 and 2. He’s identified as Officer Marcus McNeil, a three-year veteran assigned since July 2015 to the eastern New Orleans district where he was killed.
Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said at a 3:30 a.m. news conference that McNeil was shot when he and three other officers on routine patrol got out of their car to investigate something suspicious shortly after midnight.
He says McNeil collapsed on the scene and died at a hospital.
He says one or more officers fired back, wounding the suspect, who fled into an apartment. Harrison says police negotiators eventually persuaded him to give up.
Harrison says the 30-year-old suspect was shot several times and is under arrest at the city’s trauma hospital.
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7:20 a.m.
A New Orleans police officer was shot and killed early Friday while patrolling the city’s east side, police said.
The accused shooter was also shot when officers returned fire, Police Superintendent Michael Harrison told reporters at an early morning news conference.
At least one — possibly two — officers returned fire “and our officer collapsed right there on the scene,” Harrison said.
“We are all grieving,” Harrison said. “Our department is grieving, our city is grieving and this family is grieving so we ask the city to pray for us and keep us in our thoughts and prayers.”
The suspect surrendered to a SWAT team after hiding inside an apartment for a time, Harrison said. The accused gunman was taken to a hospital where he was being treated Friday morning, he said.
