Marksville, LA — Sixteen months ago, one of the worst police killings ever to be recorded on video rocked the country. Jeremy Mardis, a 6-year-old boy, was gunned down in cold blood by two bad Louisiana cops — Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. Now, one of those officers is finally being tried for this horrific act which was caught on a body camera.
In what the head of Louisiana State police called ‘the most disturbing thing he’s ever seen,’ Mardis was murdered as he rode with his father, Chris Few, as he sat strapped into the front seat of the car.
“He didn’t deserve to die like that,” State Police Col. Mike Edmonson said as he announced the deputies’ arrests, less than a week after the shooting.
For almost a year, body camera footage from that fateful night was kept hidden from the public. However, last September it was released showing these two officers murder a boy and attempt to murder his father.
Jury selection for Derrick Stafford’s trial began Monday and is expected to last several days.
Prosecutors are going to make the case that the bodycam video proves Few did not pose a threat and was, in fact, surrendering with his hands up when police opened fire.
Defense attorneys, however, will attempt to convince a jury that Stafford and Greenhouse Jr. acted in self-defense — in spite of the fact they had no justification for the stop in the first place — and contradictory to the video evidence.
Despite the testimony to the contrary from a State Police detective, defense attorneys are going to try to convince a jury that Few was attempting to ram Greenhouse’s vehicle.
