Prosecutor: Officers who fatally shot boy weren’t in danger
MARKSVILLE, La. — Two Louisiana law enforcement officers weren’t in any danger when they fired a barrage of bullets at a car, killing a 6-year-old autistic boy and critically wounding his father, a prosecutor said Monday at the start of a murder trial for one of the officers.
But an attorney for Derrick Stafford blamed the deadly confrontation on Jeremy Mardis’ father, calling him “the author of that child’s fate.” Defence attorney Jonathan Goins said the father, Christopher Few, led officers on a dangerous, high-speed chase and rammed a deputy’s vehicle before the shooting.
“Innocent people do not run from the police. Innocent people stop their vehicles, surrender to the police,” Goins said during the trial’s opening statements.
Prosecutors say none of the father’s actions that night can justify the deadly response by Stafford and another deputy city marshal, Norris Greenhouse Jr.