6-Year-Old Killed Following Officer-Involved Shooting In Marksville

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MARKSVILLE, La. (KALB) – Louisiana State Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting that occurred around 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in Marksville on Martin Luther King  Drive.

According to State Police, City Marshals from the Ward 2 office were in pursuit of a vehicle. KALB  was told that City Marshals fired their weapons at the vehicle at the conclusion of the pursuit.

State Police confirmed that the driver of the vehicle, who has not been identified, is in critical condition.

His passenger was identified as 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis by Avoyelles Parish coroner Dr.  L. J. Mayeux. The boy was pronounced dead.

Mardis was a first grader at Lafargue Elementary. Dr. Mayeux said the man, identified as Chris Few, is in critical condition and is the boy’s father.

State Police have not identified the officers involved in the shooting.

This is a developing story check back with KLFY for more details.

http://klfy.com/2015/11/04/6-year-old-shot-killed-during-police-pursuit-in-marksville/
 
MARKSVILLE - Authorities say a 6-year-old boy is dead and his father is in critical condition after marshals for a city in central Louisiana shot at a vehicle they were fleeing in.

Officials say the two were shot about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday in the city of Marksville. 

Avoyelles Parish coroner Dr. L. J. Mayeux identified the driver as Chris Few and his son as Jeremy Mardis, a first-grader at a nearby elementary school.

Mayeux says city marshals were chasing Few after he fled an attempt to serve a warrant.

The coroner says Few reached a dead end and was backing into the marshals when they fired. The coroner says the boy was "caught in the line of fire" and was killed.

State police are handling the investigation, but they provided few details.

http://www.wbrz.com/news/six-year-o...le?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WBRZ
RIP
 
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 RIP to the little dude 
 
:smh: Wonder what goes through peoples minds when they put children's lives in danger. Little homie will never get to experience life.
 
[h1]  Officers arrested in shooting death of 6-year-old boy in Louisiana[/h1]
(CNN)Two police officers in Louisiana are facing murder charges after a 6-year-old boy was shot to death in the front seat of his father's vehicle, authorities said.

The shooting happened on a dead-end street at the end of a Tuesday night chase in Marksville, a town of about 5,500 about 90 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, authorities said.
It's unclear why officers pursued or why shots were fired, since investigators say there were no outstanding warrants against the father, Chris Few, and that no firearm was found in his vehicle.

Jeremy Mardis, a first-grader, was hit by five bullets in the head and chest as the officers pursued his father's car, according to CNN affiliate WAFB. His father was hospitalized with gunshot wounds and was listed in critical condition.

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Officers Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Derrick Stafford are charged with second-degree murder.

"We took some of the body cam footage. I'm not gonna talk about it, but I'm gonna tell you this -- it is the most disturbing thing I've seen and I will leave it at that," State Police Col. Michael Edmonson said at a news conference late Friday. "That little boy was buckled into the front seat of that vehicle and that is how he died."

Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, and Derrick Stafford, 32, were charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. They were placed on administrative leave, as were two other marshals involved in the chase who have not been charged.

As of Saturday evening, Stafford and Greenhouse were being held at the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center in Cottonport, about 10 miles from Marksville. They were being held separately from the facility's general population, according to an official who spoke with CNN.

Greenhouse and Stafford were working second jobs as city marshals when the shooting happened. Greenhouse is a full-time Marksville police lieutenant and Stafford is a marshal in Alexandria, Edmonson said.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/06/us/louisiana-child-shooting-officers-arrested/index.html
[h1]Report: Louisiana Police Dramatically Walk Back Explanation for Shooting Death of First-Grader[/h1]
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New details and an explicit disavowal of the initial explanation suddenly make the fatal shooting of six-year-old Jeremy Mardis look like the result of disastrous recklessness by local police, if not something worse.

Two days after six-year-old Jeremy Mardis was fatally shot, and just a day after the shooting was attributed to marshals, and the boy’s father accused of backing his car into pursuers, Louisiana police have disavowed that entire story,reports  The Guardian.
On Thursday, Colonel Michael Edmonson, head of the Louisiana state police, denied earlier reports that Few had been reversing his car toward the officers, who then had to defend themselves. “No. I didn’t say that,” he told the Guardian. “That didn’t come from me.”

At a press conference, Edmonson initially described the shooting as “an exchange of gunfire”, but later clarified that only the officers had shot, and that investigators had found no gun in Few’s car. Officials had previously declined to confirm whether officer gunfire was responsible for Mardis’s death.
Another revelation: the city’s marshal, Floyd Voinche, and his officers have been accused of routinely “overstepping their authority” by Marksville’s mayor, John Lemoine.
“I don’t know why he felt the need to start patrolling in city limits,” Lemoine said Thursday of Voinche. “It makes no sense to me.”
According to the report  (you should read the whole thing), the investigation so far does not seem to support the story that Few was backing his vehicle towards or into officers. The positioning of the three police cruisers on the scene and the spray of glass from the passenger window indicate Few’s car was perpendicular to the officers, and their shots “hit the driver’s side broadside.”
Edmonson also said video footage of the incident does exist, but that investigators have not reviewed it. He added that the officers involved – there are four – had so far refused to speak with state police investigators. Police have not released the names of the involved officers.

Asked by the Guardian what reason they offered for their silence, Edmonson said: “You’d have to ask them. We are trying to talk with them.”
Worst of all—as if this thing can get much worse, holy ****—it’s not entirely clear that Few was approached by the authorities for any good reason. Few’s fiancee, Megan Dixon, said she and Few had bickered at a local pool hall. Sometime later, after Few had picked up his son, he pulled alongside Dixon at a stoplight and asked her to come with him.
“I wouldn’t do it,” she said. “I’m stubborn.”

Moments later, she said, as the cars pulled away from the light, she saw two marshals’ cars—marked in black and white—approaching from behind with their lights flashing. She looked into Few’s car as he pulled away, and he was pointing at his son’s head, indicating that he was in the car and he wasn’t sure what to do.
The reason for Few’s uncertainty? He was reportedly afraid of the marshals “because he and one of the marshals on the scene had a prior personal conflict.”

http://gawker.com/report-louisiana-...-of-6-year-old-boy-in-louisiana.370890/page-2
 
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Damn. 
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I really want to be mad at the cops in this situation, and I am.  Seems like another obvious overzealous show of force.  

But dawg.....fleeing with your kid in the car is never the move.  So many outcomes to that scenario that could hurt your kid.  
 
[h1]  UPDATE: Marksville Officer a Defendant in a Civil Rights Lawsuit[/h1]
UPDATE: 5:15 P.M.  Jason Brouilette, one of two Marksville Police officers not charged in Tuesday's shooting that left a 6-year-old boy dead, was named a defendant in a civil rights lawsuit filed earlier this year.

Brouilette was one of four law enforcement officers on the scene of the Tuesday night shooting of a father and his child.

Dontrale Demarko Phillips, an inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, filed a federal lawsuit in July against a list of Alexandria police officers, including Brouillette, and the district attorney's office.

Phillips claimed he was arrested without a warrant or probable cause and charged with three counts of armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and illegal use of a weapon. He also claims he was denied his rights after his arrest and during his trial and sought $7 million in damages.

The lawsuit was dismissed in September because he had previously filed multiple lawsuits, including three that were dismissed as frivolous, malicious or because he failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted.

-- Claire Taylor, The Daily Advertiser

UPDATE 4:45 P.M.  Town Talk reporter Melissa Gregory is at a memorial for Jeremy Mardis at the scene of his shooting death in Marksville. Plans are underway for a caravan Monday from the site to his funeral in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

UPDATE 4:15 P.M.  City marshals decide what kind of tests and background checks to conduct before hiring employees, former Lafayette City Marshal Earl “Nickey” Picard said Saturday.

Candidates for jobs with his office had to pass a lie detector test, psychological evaluation, physical and background check before going to the police academy.

“I don’t know what marshals in these small municipalities do,” he said.

Picard, who was defeated last year after serving several decades as city marshal, said he required his deputy marshals to be trained.

If a deputy marshal wants to obtain post-certification, he needs 48 hours of additional training and must past two exams. In return, a deputy marshal can earn an additional $500 in pay from the state.

Picard, who has been following the tragic events in Marksville and doesn’t know any of the law enforcement officers involved, said some things don’t make sense.

“One of these guys made lieutenant? He’s got lawsuits all over the place,” he said. “I’m confused. Who do they work for? One works for the marshal’s office in Alexandria and the marshal’s office in Marksville and the Cheneyville police department?”

Regarding a dispute over whether the city marshal’s office can give out traffic tickets, Picard said they have the same duties as city police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

“They can write tickets anywhere in their jurisdiction of Marksville,” Picard said.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/...d-murder-counts-marksville-shooting/75343740/
 
ORIGINAL STORY

MARKSVILLE  — Six-year-old Jeremy David Mardis died Tuesday night while still strapped into the front seat of his father's car, and now two Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals are facing charges in his death and in his father's wounding.

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Derrick Stafford (left) and Norris Greenhouse Jr. (Photo: Courtesy/Louisiana State Police)

Marshals Derrick Stafford, 32, and 23-year-old Norris Greenhouse Jr. — also a full-time Alexandria city deputy marshal — were arrested Friday evening by Louisiana State Police. Both were charged with second-degree murder in Jeremy's death and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting of his father, Chris Few.

"It was the most disturbing thing I've seen," Col. Mike Edmonson, Louisiana State Police superintendent, said about the video taken from the incident. "I will leave it at that."

Stafford and Greenhouse were among three Ward 2 marshals and a Marksville Police Department officer involved in the shooting around 9:30 p.m. at the intersection of Martin Luther King Drive and Taensas Street. Few remains in serious condition, on a respirator, in the intensive-care unit at Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria.



THETOWNTALK.COM

Boy shot dead in Marksville marshal pursuit



THETOWNTALK.COM

Edmonson: Answers in child's shooting death will take time

Both Stafford and Greenhouse were booked into the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center. The arrests were announced at a 10 p.m. press conference held at the Marksville Fire Department on North Main Street. As the media was being briefed, the men were being booked into jail.

The men were moonlighting as Marksville marshals. Stafford was a Marksville lieutenant with eight years of service. It's unknown how long Greenhouse has served with the Alexandria marshal's office.

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Col. Mike Edmonson, Louisiana State Police superintendent, announces the arrests of two Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals in the shooting death of 6-year-old Jeremy David Mardis. (Photo: Miranda Klein/mquartemon@thetowntalk.com)

The Town Talk left two messages earlier Friday for Alexandria City Marshal Terrence Grines, but they were not immediately returned.

This is not Stafford's first brush with the wrong side of the law. In October 2011, he was indicted by a Rapides Parish grand jury on two counts of aggravated rape.

The indictment alleged that he had raped two different victims, one in September 2004 and the other in February 2011. But, in May 2012, the case was dismissed without prejudice, which meant that the charges could be brought again.

The other two officers involved in the shooting are Lt. Jason Brouillette, a 13-year veteran of the Marksville department, and Kenneth Parnell, a five-year veteran of the department. Brouillette also was moonlighting as a Ward 2 marshal, while Parnell was working with the department. He had been called to the scene as a back-up.

Marksville officers wear body cameras, and Edmonson said the video investigators viewed was from a body camera.



PERISCOPE

Melissa Gregory on Periscope: "#JeremyMardis press conference on officer arrests"

No charges have been filed against either Brouillette or Parnell, but Edmonson said the investigation still was continuing. He said that since the shooting, investigators have conducted "countless" interviews, analyzed the body camera video and audio from a 911 call.

"We know a lot about it. This is a complex case. It's got a lot of moving parts," he said. "Nothing's more important to me than the integrity of this case and that's why I don't want to go into details. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

Marksville Police Chief Elster Smith Jr. had told The Town Talk earlier Friday that all the officers had been placed on administrative leave. A decision had not been made yet about whether they would be paid during that leave, he said.

Smith did not speak at Friday night's press conference.

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Col. Mike Edmonson, Louisiana State Police superintendent, speaks about the arrest of two Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals. In the background is Marksville Police Chief Elster Smith Jr. One of the men arrested, Derrick Stafford, is a Marksville Police Department lieutenant. (Photo: Miranda Klein/mquartemon@thetowntalk.com)

On Thursday, he briefly had addressed the practice of officers working other law enforcement jobs. Smith said that, before this incident, he had no concerns about his officers working for the marshal's office. He said some of his officers do moonlight for other departments and that, as long as that didn't interfere with their jobs with his department, it was OK with him.

Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Charles Riddle III said he would file a motion soon to recuse his office from the case, letting the Louisiana Attorney General's Office handle it.

"The community needs to know this, that our district attorney's office and the State Police and our local police department, did not direct ... this investigation because of the relationship of one of the accused who was arrested tonight and one of our assistant district attorneys," said Riddle.

Norris Greenhouse is a civil assistant district attorney in Riddle's office. The Town Talk has confirmed that Norris Greenhouse and Norris Greenhouse Jr. are father and son.

Riddle also said Friday night was the first time he'd heard details of the case.

"This is a wounded community. There are some wounded families out there, a lot of hurt. I want to allow them the chance to heal. This is a good community.  This is a vibrant community with a lot of really good people." — Col. Mike Edmonson

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Avoyelles Parish District Attorney Charles Riddle III (right) said that his office would file a motion to recuse itself from the case of two Marksville Ward 2 deputy marshals charged in the death of 6-year-old Jeremy David Mardis. (Photo: Miranda Klein/mquartemon@thetowntalk.com)

Edmonson also urged residents who have information about either Stafford or Greenhouse Jr., or the incident, to contact State Police. He said there would be no more press conferences unless there was breaking news to share.

He also said that the community, police department and marshal's office would need time to heal after the shooting, asking people to come together for that.

"Justice has been done tonight, but the investigation is far, far from over."

Also not over is the dispute that's been simmering over the past several months between the city of Marksville and the city marshal's office. Mayor John Lemoine, in a letter dated Sept. 1, had requested an opinion from the AG's office about what authority city and Ward 2 Marshal Floyd Voinche Sr. and his deputies had within the city limits.

Marksville Mayor John Lemoine letter

"We have reason to believe that the Ward 2 Marshal is issuing tickets inside the city limits without consent or approval of the Marksville City Council," reads Lemoine's letter. "We understand why the State Police can issue tickets without the approval of the Marksville City Council, but we are asking if the Ward 2 Marshal has the authority to issue tickets within the city limits without the approval of the Marksville City Council?"

"I don't know why he felt the need to start patrolling in city limits," Lemoine told The Guardian website. "It makes no sense to me."

Marksville Police Chief Elster Smith Jr. said during a Thursday press conference that officials were unsure whether the marshal had jurisdiction to operate within the city limits.

Voinche released his first statement about the incident on Friday, pointing to Louisiana revised statute 13:1881, which deals with the general powers and duties of marshals and deputy marshals.

He called the shooting death of Jeremy David Mardis "tragic," but insisted that Louisiana law allowed his deputy marshals "to write traffic tickets, make arrests and preserve the peace."

Statement from Marksville City and Ward 2 Marshal Floyd Voinche Sr.

So far, the AG's office hasn't replied to Lemoine's letter.

The statement was emailed from H. Bradford Calvit, an attorney at the Alexandria firm of Provosty, Sadler, DeLaunay, Fiorenza & Sobel to represent him in the case.

Both Smith and Voinche have said all four officers are POST-certified (Peace Officer Standards and Training), which includes firearms.

When asked whether he had concerns about how Voinche was operating, Smith didn't answer. He described his relationship with Voinche as "good," but said he had not talked to him since the shooting.

Also at the Thursday press conference, Edmonson said no gun had been found in Few's car. Even with the arrests of Stafford and Greenhouse Jr., it still wasn't clear why the marshals were pursuing Few.

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The names of the four Marksville city marshals involved in the fatal shooting of 6-year-old Jeremy David Mardis have been released. (Photo: Courtesy/Facebook)

A woman who identified herself as Few's fiancee has claimed that she saw the incident start. Marksville resident Megan Dixon also denied that Few had a gun when she spoke up during the press conference.

"No, he didn't have a gun because I'm the reason why this all started," she said. "And I know what happened."

Dixon told The Guardian that she and Few "had bickered" at TJ's Lounge, which is on Spring Bayou Road not far from the shooting scene. She said she left with a friend and that Few also left to go pick up his son.

Dixon claims that, later, Few pulled up next to her car at a traffic signal and tried to get her to come with him. She refused, she said. As they left the signal, she said she saw two black and white marshal's cars coming from behind with their lights activated.

Few had had some sort of disagreement with one of the marshals involved in the shooting, Dixon told The Guardian. She did not identify which marshal.



MOOREFUNERALSERVICES

Obituary for Jeremy David Mardis at Moore Funeral Service

Services and burial for Jeremy will be held Monday in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

http://www.thetowntalk.com/story/ne...ty-marshals-fatal-shooting-released/75316448/
 
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I blame the father more than anything

putting a kid in danger like that :smh: :smh: :smh:

Did you even read any of that super long post above yours? The only negligible thing to point to would be having the kid in the front seat. Even then, that photo of him appears to show him in a 2 door truck, sitting in a booster seat. No one has confirmed what vehicle he actually drove yet, to my knowledge
 
Damn. :smh:

I really want to be mad at the cops in this situation, and I am.  Seems like another obvious overzealous show of force.  

But dawg.....fleeing with your kid in the car is never the move.  So many outcomes to that scenario that could hurt your kid.  


I blame the father more than anything

putting a kid in danger like that :smh: :smh: :smh:

Let me disclose this, I don't know all of the details, just like most of us in this thread.

There were no warrants for the father's arrest and they didn't find a gun in the vehicle. With all that's been going on with police killing innocent people (such as this boy) would it be far fetched to believe this guy feared for his life and didn't want to die?

inb4 "He should've just pulled over.

Either way, why shoot? He wasn't shooting at the cops.


:smh: RIP little man.
 
Did you even read any of that super long post above yours? The only negligible thing to point to would be having the kid in the front seat. Even then, that photo of him appears to show him in a 2 door truck, sitting in a booster seat. No one has confirmed what vehicle he actually drove yet, to my knowledge


Yes, I did. Still doesn't change my opinion on it.
 
The father and shooter or driver pig had history it says. That doesn't seem right, there must be alot more to this.

The fact that these pig bastards get to use deadly force time and time again when their suspect isnt armed nor putting there life in danger is ********, badge or no badge you dont have the right to take someones life because there commiting an unlawful act, depending on the act of course but this is ********.

A white boy killed on Martin Luther King Drive [emoji]128563[/emoji]
Damn id sure hope im reading your post Wrong?

Its a child human being that got murdered shot down by police, dont be an ignorant bringing race into it.
 
The situation isn't funny at all but reading this was like reading one of those satire articles on the onion or mediatakeout ...RIP to the lil dude
 
The father and shooter or driver pig had history it says. That doesn't seem right, there must be alot more to this.

The fact that these pig bastards get to use deadly force time and time again when their suspect isnt armed nor putting there life in danger is ********, badge or no badge you dont have the right to take someones life because there commiting an unlawful act, depending on the act of course but this is ********.
Pretty much.

I don't blame the father. We could split this thing down a hundred ways and trace the blame all the way back to the the broken system. Thing is.. We shouldn't have too. These cops are wildin' out here shooting people down without a cause! Then making **** up to justify their shootout. The father decision to keep driving with police in pursuit is a tragedy he'll have to live with forever but to have officers wet up your vehicle just cause a personal beef? I mean we can't say for sure but **** how else can we explain an altercation between two acquainted people ending in another getting chased after and gettin shot up.
I seen dudes go on hour long police chases and get out unscathed.
 
[h1]  Inside small-town Louisiana feud that led to a 6-year-old boy’s police killing[/h1]
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For years, people in the tiny Louisiana town of Marksville watched the feud between their mayor and local judge like some kind of daytime soap opera, with varying degrees of frustration and amusement.

Then came the Nov. 3 shooting that killed a 6-year-old boy. Suddenly, the petty small-town bickering began looking more tragically sinister.

Why in the world, residents ask, were deputy marshals — whose main job is serving court papers for the judge — out there chasing cars and shooting up suspects? How did one of the deputies — who had been charged twice for aggravated rape and racked up a string of lawsuits accusing him of using excessive force — even get hired? And how did a speck of a town like Marksville wind up with a shadow police force on its streets?

“It’s pretty clear to me that if this feud didn’t exist, those marshals wouldn’t have been there that day,” said one former city official and resident of more than three decades who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a gag order in the case.

“We’ve watched the both of them fight for years. . . . But I don’t think anyone imagined something so petty would lead to something so tragic.”

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Marksville Deputy Marshal Derrick Stafford. (Louisiana State Police/Associated Press)

Jeremy Mardis was the youngest person shot and killed by law officers so far this year, according to a Washington Post database  tracking such shootings. Amid a national debate over police use of deadly force, the killing of an autistic 6-year-old sent shock waves nationwide.

Louisiana State Police said they are still trying to figure out why deputies were chasing an SUV  driven by Jeremy’s father, Chris Few. Few was not armed and was not the subject of any arrest warrant.

When the chase ended, the two deputies — Derrick Stafford, 32, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23 — fired at least 18 bullets into Few’s SUV, police said. Five shots hit Jeremy, a first-grader strapped into the front seat beside his father. Few was critically injured; his attorney told reporters that he was recently released from the hospital.

Two police officers who work for the mayor arrived during the shooting; one of them was wearing a body camera. The footage “is one of the most disturbing videos I’ve ever seen,” State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said.

“It troubled me as a police officer and as a father. There’s no reason that boy deserved to die like that,” Edmonson said. Few’s attorney told reporters that the video shows the father with his hands in the air as the deputies open fire.

Stafford and Greenhouse have been arrested and charged with second-degree murder. A judge overseeing the case has issued a gag order, prohibiting those involved and potential witnesses from talking to reporters.

Since then, information about the case and Marksville more generally has slowed to a trickle, with folks in town refusing to talk openly about almost anything. In private interviews, however, many blamed the long-running feud for Jeremy’s death. It may not have directly caused the shooting, they say, but it created the bizarre circumstances that made it possible.

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Marksville Deputy Marshal Norris Greenhouse Jr. (Louisiana State Police/Associated Press)

With a population of 5,500 and a median income of $26,700, Marksville is small, rural and relatively poor. Like most towns in Louisiana, it has a local marshal, an elected position with no police training or experience required.

The marshal’s job is to serve court papers: subpoenas, warrants, notices of nonpayment. For years in Marksville, the marshal has been a local bus driver, Floyd Voinche Sr., who carried out his duties with one full-time employee and one part-timer, according to a statewide marshals directory.

But sometime in the past two months, that changed.

Mayor John Lemoine told reporters that Voinche’s office bought two used police cruisers, hired several part-time deputies, and started patrolling the streets and issuing tickets like regular city police. In a September letter to Louisiana’s attorney general, Lemoine asked whether the marshal’s sudden expansion of duties was legal.

Voinche has refused to explain his actions, issuing a terse statement  citing a Louisiana law  that empowers deputy marshals “in making arrests and preserving the peace.”

“The statute gives us the same authority as a sheriff,” said Joey Alcede, a marshal in Lake Charles and an official with the state marshals association. Having marshals take on the duties of city police is highly unusual, however, Alcede said.

According to several current and former city officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of violating the gag order, Marksville’s marshal began issuing traffic tickets to generate money for the city court. The court’s funding has been the focus of a furious battle between the mayor and City Judge Angelo Piazza III since last year.

“No one really took it seriously, until recently. It was like watching two bullies fighting,” said one resident who has known both men for decades.

Piazza, 57, has reigned over the Marksville City Court for more than two decades. A Civil War buff known for hauling authentic cannons to reenactments, Piazza sued the city in 1997 over funding. When Lemoine, 63, a mechanic and auto parts shop owner, was elected mayor in 2010, he announced plans to tighten Marksville’s budget, and war fully bloomed.

“Lemoine put a microscope on City Court,” Piazza told the local paper, the Avoyelles Journal, last year. Piazza said the scrutiny added new costs and bureaucracy, even as Marksville police started issuing fewer tickets, dramatically reducing his court’s income.

Then this summer, Lemoine sharply cut the court’s budget — including the judge’s salary. Piazza filed suit. Piazza declined to comment for this story. Lemoine and Voinche did not return repeated calls for comment.

The feud polarized the town’s law enforcement community. “You have officers siding with the judge and marshal, and others with the mayor,” said one longtime elected official.

At one point, the mayor was arrested after an argument with police. One of the arresting officers was Stafford, and afterward the mayor tried to get a civil service oversight board to investigate him.

Both Stafford and Greenhouse were moonlighting as deputy marshals when they opened fire on Nov. 3. Stafford was a Marksville police officer; Greenhouse is a reserve Marksville officer and deputy marshal in neighboring Alexandria. It is unclear when or how they joined Marksville’s newly expanded marshal service. Many have questioned Stafford’s hiring in particular.

“This is a guy I think a lot of us would have trouble hiring,” said a law enforcement chief in a neighboring jurisdiction.

Stafford has been charged twice with aggravated rape in nearby Rapides Parish. According to the indictment, one 15-year-old victim said Stafford committed rape on the victim’s birthday in 2004. In a separate incident, a second victim said Stafford committed rape in 2011.

In 2012, the charges were inexplicably dropped. In court documents, the attorney listed as representing Stafford is Piazza, the same judge he now works under as a deputy marshal.

Monique Metoyer, who prosecuted the rape case, declined to explain why the charges were dropped. But she confirmed that Marksville’s judge served as Stafford’s lawyer.

Stafford has also been accused in civil court of using excessive force; at least five lawsuits are pending against him. The accusations include throwing an already handcuffed woman into a back seat and using a stun gun on her, breaking the arm of a 15-year-old girl, and arresting a man in retribution for filing a formal complaint against Stafford for yelling at his family.

Greenhouse has been accused alongside Stafford in two excessive force cases. And in an example of the messy overlap common in small-town government, Greenhouse’s father works for the local district attorney, who had to recuse himself from prosecuting Stafford and Greenhouse in the shooting.

Greenhouse also appears to have a personal connection to Few and his girlfriend, Megan Dixon. Dixon told the Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge that she went to high school with Greenhouse and that he had recently messaged her on Facebook and stopped by the house where she lived with Few.

“I told Chris, and Chris confronted him about it and told him, ‘Next time you come to my house, I’m going to hurt you,’ ” Dixon said.

With the gag order in place, it is unclear when authorities will release additional information about the shooting, including the body camera footage. No trial date has been set. Equally unclear is what will happen to the newly expanded marshal service.

Meanwhile, the family of Jeremy Mardis held a private funeral for the first-grader last week in his hometown of Hattiesburg, Miss. Under a chilly gray sky, the family placed his small coffin inside a hearse and headed to nearby Beaumont Cemetery to bury him.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...247ffa-8967-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...247ffa-8967-11e5-be39-0034bb576eee_story.html
 
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So these guys took it on themselves to up their responsibilities from regular Marshal Work, in order to "police" the area aka harass people administer tickets and create arrest for revenue. Then to top it off they went after the father over a personal quarrel & killed a child while doing it.

Oh not to mention that they COMPLETELY Lied about the story & people wonder why there is a distrust against the cops
 
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