Police Brutality / Individual record
James Brissette
Seventeen-year-old James Brissette was shot and killed by New Orleans officers on the Danziger Bridge days after Hurricane Katrina.
- Record ID
- PB-030
- Incident date
- September 4, 2005
- Date of death
- September 4, 2005
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- New Orleans, LA
- Category
- Police shooting
What happened
On September 4, 2005, Brissette was walking with members of the Bartholomew family across the bridge seeking necessities when police arrived and opened fire. Officers shot the unarmed group, killing Brissette and wounding four relatives. Prosecutors later established that officers fabricated or coordinated false accounts to make the shootings appear justified.
Investigation & findings
Federal trials produced civil-rights and obstruction convictions, followed by extended litigation and sentencing proceedings. The Department of Justice case history details the cover-up and victims.
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- Historical source-derived record, pre-2015
Sources & records
- Primary source
- Additional source
- Methodology and national police killings trackingMapping Police Violence · Dataset/methodology
- Published historical compilation of Black people killed in police custody (1999–2014)SAGE journal / cited NAACP LDF memorial listing · 2016 · Secondary scholarly source