Two Louisiana sheriff’s deputies have been arrested on manslaughter charges and fired after police officials said they shot and killed an unarmed man in a parked car last week.
Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto III of Jefferson County said the use of force by officers “was not justified” after they shot dead a man, Daniel Valle, during a confrontation with police early Wednesday morning in Marrero, Louisiana, south of New Orleans.
The shooting happened around 2 am when police, responding to a noise complaint in the area, found Mr. Valle in a car parked in front of a “known drug den,” the sheriff said. said during a press conference on Monday evening.
According to the sheriff, the police repeatedly ordered Valla, 34, to get out of the car, but he refused. During the standoff, which lasted about 12 minutes, Mr. Valle locked the doors and eventually started the car’s engine, according to Sheriff Lopinto.
“This, of course, aggravated the situation,” he said. “Many of my deputies drew their weapons at this point, expecting him to try to take off.”
According to Sheriff Lopinto, during the collision, Mr. Valle raised his hands, but at some point lowered them, hitting the car horn.
“My opinion is that this horn, whether it frightens my deputy or my deputy reacts to the shot of the horn, ends up firing his weapon,” the sheriff said. “The second deputy fired his weapon in response to this shot.”
According to Sheriff Lopinto, both officers fired several shots. Three other officers present at the scene did not fire their weapons.
sheriff identified fired officers like Isaac Hughes, 29, and Jonathan Louis, 35. Mr Hughes has been with the department since 2013 and Mr Louis since 2020. Each faces one charge of manslaughter.
“Unfortunately, the use of force in this situation was not justified,” Sheriff Lopinto said, adding that he believed the shooting was “definitely unintentional.”
The officers cooperated with the investigation, Sheriff Lopinto said, and the body-camera footage of the confrontation, which has not yet been released, “reinforces” what the officers told investigators about the shooting.
Sheriff Lopinto said the shooting was the first time police body cameras had been recorded since the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office began using them last year. The office adopted the technology after a video of one of its deputies attacking a woman. attracted national news Attention.
The Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union has filed several lawsuits over the past two years against the sheriff’s office in connection with what the ACLU calls incidents of violence. severe beatings as well as racial profiling.
Last week, Glenn McGovern, a civil rights lawyer hired by Mr. Vallee’s family, told a New Orleans news stationWWL-TV that Mr. Valle’s constitutional rights had been violated and asked why the police didn’t use other tactics to get him out of the car.
Mr. McGovern did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
IN interview last week with NOLA.comMr. Valle’s relatives said he had long struggled with drug addiction but was not a violent person.
“He is a struggling drug addict. That doesn’t mean he should have been shot the way he was,” his aunt Tara Phillips told the news outlet.
Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.