Death of Henry Glover

Henry Glover was an African American resident of New Orleans, Louisiana whose charred body was found in a destroyed Chevrolet Malibu on September 2, 2005, parked on a Mississippi River levee. Five current and former officers of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) were charged with Glover's death. First to be charged was former NOPD police officer David Warren, a rookie at the time, who was convicted and sentenced to 25 years and 9 months in prison for shooting and killing Glover. Former NOPD police officer Greg McRae was convicted of obstructing justice and other charges in the burning of Glover's body and was sentenced to 17 years and 3 months in prison.

NOPD Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann is charged with assaulting civilians who came to Glover's aid, as well as obstructing a federal investigation through the burning of Glover's body in a 2000 Chevy Malibu. He faces a maximum of 60 years in prison. Former NOPD Lt. Robert Italiano and NOPD Lt. Travis McCabe are charged with obstructing justice and lying to the FBI. McCabe is also charged with lying to a federal grand jury. Italiano faces up to 25 years in prison, while McCabe faces up to 30 years in prison.

The 11-count indictment accused officers of shooting Glover as well as physically attacking his brother and one of his neighbors. The indictment also accused officers of attempting to conceal their actions, through actions such as the attempted cremation of Glover's corpse. Glover's death was an example of frequent police misconduct in the direct aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.^[1][2][3]

Henry Glover

Henry Glover was a 31-year-old African-American resident of the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, located on the western bank of the Mississippi. He endured Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans along with his mother, brother, and sister. Henry was last seen uninjured on September 2, four days after the storm, by his sister.^[3]

Chain of events

The prosecutors have alleged:^[2][3]

• NOPD officer David Warren shot Glover in the chest with a .223 rifle near an Algiers strip mall.
• Glover's brother, Edward King, and sister, Patrice Glover, came to Glover's aid.
• A neighbor of Glover named William Tanner drove Glover and his brother to seek medical attention at a nearby school, Habans Elementary School, which had been commandeered by a SWAT team of officers. Several SWAT officers testified in trial that Tanner actually fled from a marked police car near the school. It was only after several other police cars joined in the chase that he stopped on the Mercedes Street side of the school. Neither of the two men knew how Glover had been injured.
• SWAT officers at the school immediately placed Tanner and King into handcuffs, and then allegedly beat them. The jury acquitted the officers on this charge. Testimony in trial also alleged that an African American officer also struck one of the detained men, but little effort was put into finding that officer. While it was alleged by William Tanner in numerous media interviews that the SWAT officers let Henry Glover bleed to death in the car, the trial testimony of Lt. Scheuermann proved that in fact he had checked Glover's body for any signs of life and in fact he was already deceased. This proof was in the form of photographs provided to the defense in discovery.
• Glover died from his wounds. NOPD officer Greg McRae set fire to Glover’s body as it sat inside Tanner’s 2001 Chevrolet Malibu. The car was left parked on a Mississippi River levee down the street from a NOPD office.
• Istvan Balogh, a former law enforcement officer who had come in from out of state, discovered Glover's corpse on September 9. He admitted in trial that he video taped the burned car with Glover's remains and has since sold copies of the video tape.

Aftermath

On March 31, 2011, Judge Lance M. Africk sentenced David Warren to 25 years and 9 months in federal prison on a federal civil rights violation of committing manslaughter with a firearm. Judge Africk sentenced Greg MacRae to 17 years and 3 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release on obstruction of justice and another civil rights charge.^[4][5] "Henry Glover was not at the strip mall to commit suicide. He was there to retrieve some baby clothing. You killed a man. Despite your tendentious arguments to the contrary, it was no mistake," Africk told Warren.^[5] On Dec. 17, 2012, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the two felony convictions of Warren and two of the convictions related to McRae, ordering new trials on those charges. The three-judge panel found, among other concerns, that the trials of the two men should have been conducted separately.^[6]

The Glover case was incorporated into the plot of the television series Treme.^[7] The defendants cited local media coverage along with the portrayal in Treme when they sought a change of venue for the re-trial.^[7]

On December 11, 2013, a jury acquitted Warren on both counts against him.^[8]

See also

• Danziger Bridge Shootings
• New Orleans Police Department
• List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United States

References