Cop Pleads Guilty in Katrina Shootings

By Jamilah King Feb 25, 2010

New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley on Danziger Cover-Up

Remember those brutal police shootings of unarmed civilians following Hurricane Katrina? A cop just pleaded guilty to orchestrating a cover-up:

Lt. Michael Lohman’s guilty plea on Wednesday signals a huge break for federal prosecutors and a potentially devastating blow to the other New Orleans police officers involved in the shootings on the Danziger Bridge and the subsequent internal inquiry into those shootings, lawyers following developments in the case say. In admitting he conspired to obstruct justice, Lohman acknowledged helping concoct a cover story for police shootings that left two New Orleanians dead and four injured in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina. Among other things, the government says Lohman participated in a scheme to plant a gun at the scene, and helped rewrite police reports and witness statements to make a fabricated version of events seem more plausible.

Breaking through the blue code was big. Now if we could only break through the wall of silence hovering over those other mysterious shootings of unarmed civilians after Katrina.

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