MARKSVILLE, La. (AP) – Two law-enforcement officers jailed on murder charges for a 6-year-old autistic boy’s fatal shooting in central Louisiana have been targets of previous complaints that they used excessive force or neglected their duties.
Residents have filed a string of civil lawsuits against Derrick Stafford, 32, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, who have worked as police officers in Marksville but were moonlighting as city marshals when they allegedly opened fire on Chris Few and his son, Jeremy Mardis, inside a car on Nov. 3.
Few was severely wounded but survived the shooting that killed his son. A lawyer for Few told The Associated Press on Monday that a police body camera showed that the father was holding both of his hands up and didn’t pose a threat when the officers began firing at least 18 bullets at the car.
A woman sued Stafford in 2012 over allegations that he shocked her with a stun gun while she was handcuffed. Another lawsuit accused Stafford of breaking a girl’s arm while intervening in a fight on a school bus in 2012.
Stafford and Greenhouse also are defendants in a lawsuit filed by a man who claims officers used excessive force in arresting him at a 2014 festival. Another suit claims Greenhouse and Stafford “stood idly by and did nothing” when another officer assaulted a teenage boy at a Fourth of July celebration in 2013.