5 officers convicted in shootings after Katrina

Five current and former New Orleans police officers were convicted Friday on federal charges stemming from the Danziger Bridge case, perhaps the most notorious of several instances of violent police misconduct in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when the city was plunged into chaos and fear.

On Sept. 4, 2005, six days after the city flooded, a group of police, responding to a call that fellow officers had come under fire, rode to the bridge in a Budget rental truck and shot at the people walking on it, killing two and injuring four. Federal prosecutors alleged that the civilians were unarmed - and that the officers later took part in an elaborate cover-up.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the jury verdict closed "a dark chapter in our city's history."


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