Post-Katrina Police Shooting Finally Ruled a Homicide

Previous coroner said there wasn't enough evidence
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 2, 2015 12:53 AM CDT
Post-Katrina Police Shooting Finally Ruled a Homicide
David Warren speaks during a news conference in Metairie, La., Dec. 11, 2013.   (AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman)

After almost a decade, the death of a man shot dead by police in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has been declared a homicide—a ruling that the Orleans Parish coroner stresses is "simply from a medical standpoint and simply means a death was caused by the intentional actions of another person." Former New Orleans police officer David Warren admitted shooting Henry Glover but was acquitted at his second trial. Another officer is serving 17 years for burning Glover's body after the shooting, and the previous coroner said that with nothing but "burned-out bones" left, there was not enough forensic evidence to rule the death a homicide, the Times-Picayune reports.

The coroner says he changed the cause of death from "undetermined" to "homicide" after reviewing evidence from the FBI. Glover's family has long sought to have the cause of death ruled a homicide so that state murder charges against Warren can be pursued, NBC News reports. The former officer's lawyer, however, tells the Times-Picayune that "no one in law enforcement" is likely to bring new charges against Warren. Glover's death has "always been a homicide," he says. "The question was, was it a justifiable homicide. A jury of 12 citizens said that it was justifiable." (At Warren's first trial, his partner testified that Glover had been shot in the back as he ran away.)

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