13 years later, guilty plea in post-Hurricane Katrina racial shooting

AP
A condemned home and other debris in New Orleans, Louisiana, damaged in Hurricane Katrina. During that calamity, Roland Bourgeois fired a shotgun at three black men seeking shelter at the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans. (Shutterstock photo)
  • Prosecutors said that Bourgeois had discussed shooting black people and defending the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans from “outsiders” after the storm

NEW ORLEANS: A man has pleaded guilty in New Orleans to firing a shotgun at three black men in an act of racially motivated violence following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Roland Bourgeois (BOOH’-jwah) had been indicted in federal court in 2010. But his legal proceedings dragged on for years with a series of delays and hearings related to his physical and mental health.
Bourgeois pleaded guilty Wednesday to amended charges in a bill of information: interfering with the victim’s rights because of their race and using a firearm in a crime of violence.
Prosecutors said Bourgeois fired a shotgun at three black men, wounding one seriously, after he and others discussed shooting black people and defending the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans from “outsiders” after the storm.