Just days after a 6-year-old Louisiana boy was caught in the crossfire of a shootout between his father and police, two officers have been arrested in child's death, according to the New York Times.
Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, and Lt. Derrick Stafford, 32, were both charged with second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the death of Jeremy Mardis, Col. Michael Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, announced Friday at a news conference.
The officers, who work for the Marksville, La., Police Department and part time as city marshals, were placed on administrative leave after the chase, which occurred Tuesday.
The officers were chasing the boy's father, Chris Few, who was driving a sport utility vehicle in the town in central Louisiana. He was critically injured after police opened fire on the vehicle. The child was struck several times in the head and chest, but a final autopsy report is not expected to be ready for eight weeks, the report says.
“He didn’t deserve to die like that, and that’s what’s important,” Edmonson said of the child, notes the Times. “That little boy was buckled in the front seat of that vehicle and that was how he died.”
The colonel declined to say what prompted the chase or what caused the officers to open fire. He said two other officers were involved in the incident, but did not divulge more details.
Read more at the New York Times.