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NEW ORLEANS: A jury on Friday convicted five New Orleans police officers of shooting dead two African Americans during the chaos unleashed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and trying to cover-up the killings.
"This shows that law enforcement officers will be held accountable for their actions," said US Attorney Jim Letten after the guilty verdict was handed down.
"The culture that fostered this code of silence is being shattered every day," he added.
The police officers were found guilty on 25 counts and could now face life imprisonment after being convicted of the deaths of two unarmed African American civilians in the days after Katrina devastated the southern town.
The trial focused on events on the morning of September 4, 2005, on the city's Danziger Bridge when officers, responding to a call of shooting in the area, let off what prosecutors have described as a "hail of gunfire."
Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally disabled man described by family members as gentle and loving, was shot several times in the back and died at the scene. One of the officers, Kenneth Bowen, also stamped on him while he lay wounded.
James Brissette, 17, a high school student who friends said was nerdy and studious, also died on the bridge. Four others people from the same family were also wounded.
"The officers convicted today abused their power and violated the public's trust during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - exacerbating one of the most devastating times for the people of New Orleans," said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement.
Prosecutors and family members of the victims said the verdict brings some closure to a six-year struggle for justice, but in many ways the trial was a referendum on two differing views of the days after Katrina.
Defence lawyers had said the five officers were heroes who rescued people and "fought bad guys" in a chaotic and lawless city.
They had sought to convince the jury that the officers believed their lives were in danger.
But in her closing arguments, Bobbi Bernstein, deputy chief of the US Justice Department's civil rights division, rejected the idea that the officers were heroes, saying the grieving relatives deserved more.
She claimed an official cover-up had "perverted" the system, adding "the real heroes are the victims who stayed with an imperfect justice system that initially betrayed them."
Officers "delivered their own kind of post-apocalyptic justice," she added. "The law is what it is because this is not a police state."
- AFP/de
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