By Missy Wilkinson
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans police on Tuesday released body-worn camera footage of a shootout between a murder suspect and NOPD’s special ops division that culminated in a nine-hour standoff last month in the Florida neighborhood.
Nobody was injured in the Oct. 5 gun battle between police and suspect Devin Green, 36. After firing on police and barricading himself in his home for nine hours, Green surrendered and was arrested on a count of second-degree murder, a count of attempted second-degree murder, 14 charges of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of illegal use of weapons, one count of possession of a firearm by a felon and parole violation.
He remains jailed at Orleans Justice Center in lieu of a $2 million bond.
NOPD officers believed Green committed a murder earlier that day in the 2300 block of Louisa Street. They say he shot one man and killed another at around 2 p.m., then fled. Intelligence officers tracked Green to a house in the Florida area to execute the high-risk warrant, Sergeant Debra Pruitt said.
Body-worn camera video shows police instructing Green to exit after they set up a perimeter around the house. Green did not comply, but his mother and brother did. At around 6:50 p.m., Green fired at the surrounding special operations officers from inside the house, unleashing about 15 shots from a rifle through the front door and screened porch. Body-worn camera footage shows those bullets striking the ground, the asphalt and a mailbox.
Special ops officers took cover behind an armored vehicle as three of them—Rene Benjamin, Jr., Antravis Turner and Cody O’Dell—returned fire. Some officers retreated to the side of the house. Green’s mother’s screams can be heard in the background as she shelters nearby.
New Orleans police officials released the redacted video on Tuesday under policies related to uses of deadly force governed by a federal consent decree. Federal monitors as well as the independent police monitor and the NOPD’s Force Investigation team were on the scene, NOPD said.
The FIT team’s concluded the officers’ shooting was justified, though the administrative investigation into potential improvement in tactics, equipment and training is still open, Lieutenant John Helou said.
“I’m very grateful for the excellent police work of these officers, the courage,” said NOPD superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick. “They were courageous, they were studied, they were strong, and they did what they had to do.”
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