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.
13 years later, guilty plea in post-Hurricane Katrina racial shooting
Updated 18 October 2018
13 years later, guilty plea in post-Hurricane Katrina racial shooting
- Prosecutors said that Bourgeois had discussed shooting black people and defending the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans from “outsiders” after the storm
