NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Five former New Orleans police officers say in court that they will plead guilty to lesser charges in the deadly shootings on the Danziger Bridge in the days that followed Hurricane Katrina.
The judge had set aside their earlier convictions amid a misconduct scandal over online comments by federal prosecutors. The officers said in court Wednesday that they will plead guilty under an agreement that calls for sentences that could see most of them released from prison in the next one to six years.
The court proceeding is still under way.
The guilty pleas come after the shooting deaths of two unarmed people and the wounding of four others on the New Orleans bridge less than a week after levee failures swamped the city.