Chrispon Herbert Charles, Jr.

Case summary

Incident

On the morning of July 4, 1949, Chrispon Charles Sr. called New Orleans police to report that his son, 21-year-old Chrispon Charles Jr., had broken into his home at 3901 Panama Court and refused to leave. Charles Sr. had asked Charles Jr. to move out several days before, as Charles Jr. was struggling to find employment due to numerous health issues. By the time New Orleans police officers Emry Landry and Elois Sahuc arrived at Charles Sr.’s house just before noon, Charles Jr. was gone. Charles Sr. accompanied Landry and Sahuc in their squad car to help find his son. According to Officer Landry, Charles Sr. warned the officers during the drive to be careful, as his son may be under the influence of marijuana. From the back seat, Charles Sr. saw his son in front of the Hercules bar at 3127 Broadway Street and pointed him out to the officers.

The officers ordered Charles Sr. to get out of the squad car after he finished helping get Charles Jr. into the back seat. Charles Sr. stood close by. In his statement, Landry alleged that during the struggle to get Charles Jr. into the police car, the victim grabbed Sahuc’s gun, firing an “ineffectual shot.” Landry said he believed that Sahuc had been hit, and shot Charles Jr. in the neck. Landry said he fired three additional shots, stating that Charles Jr. continued to pose a threat despite his wounds. Sahuc added that upon regaining control of his gun, he fired two additional shots at Charles Jr. “in self defense.”

The accounts of several other eyewitnesses differed substantially from those of the police. All provided statements attesting that at no point did Charles Jr. attempt to grab either officer’s gun. These witnesses stated that after the first shot, they saw Charles Jr. seated in the back seat of the police car, slumped over and bleeding. Some recalled that during the incident one officer was seated in the car while the other stood outside, firing shots through an open car door.

In his statement, Charles Sr. noted that before getting into the police car, his son told Landry and Sahuc, “I didn’t do anything.” Sahuc got into the back seat of the car and told Charles Jr., “It looks like you’ve got some fight in you. When we get to the precinct, we’ll get it out.” Charles Jr. issued an obscenity at the remark and Sahuc punched him in response. According to Charles Sr.’s statement, Landry fired the first shot, then four or five more, and Sahuc issued three final shots.

The Special Investigator for the Orleans Parish District Attorney concluded that, following an inspection of the officers’ two revolvers, a total of seven shots were fired: six from Sahuc’s gun and one from Landry’s.

Chrispon H. Charles Jr. died at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, about 45 minutes after the shooting. The autopsy report lists Charles Jr.’s cause of death as the result of “Hemorrhage and shock following gunshot wounds of head, chest and abdomen,” noting bullets to the face, chest, throat, and stomach.

Aftermath

On July 7, 1949, the Louisiana Civil Rights Congress implored the Department of Justice to investigate Charles Jr.’s killing. The New Orleans Branch of the Civil Rights Congress, founded in February 1948 following the police killing of Roy Cyril Brooks, was particularly active in investigating issues of police brutality in New Orleans. Several witnesses provided statements to the Louisiana Civil Rights Congress following the initial investigation.

On July 11, 1949, a grand jury issued a vote of “no true bills.” According to FBI files, a stenographer was not present at the proceedings and thus no transcript of the minutes from the hearing exists.

An August 26, 1949 letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana to the U.S. Attorney General referenced that the FBI’s report of the case “clearly indicates that the subject was killed while resisting arrest and while endeavoring to seize one of the arresting officers’ revolvers,” adding the addition of “certain evidence” that Charles Jr. was a marijuana user. “We advised the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the letter read, “that no further investigation is warranted.”

Charles Jr.’s case was reopened in September 1949 following the police killing of musician Carmen Knight. Attorney James I. McCain made a request to the district attorney on the basis of four new witness statements that indicated that Charles Jr. was “wantonly and unnecessarily killed.” In his letter, McCain wrote, “Charles at the time was in the automobile and was shot six or seven times by the policeman, who stood on the outside and shot into the car. Charles had no weapon of any kind.” Reporters from the Alexandria Town Talk newspaper noted that later that month, “Louisiana’s progressive party” petitioned New Orleans Mayor Delesseps S. Morrison to remove then-Superintendent of Police, Joseph Scheureing, and launch an investigation into the “horrible story of callous brutality and disregard for the lives of human beings” on the part of the New Orleans police. The second grand jury convened on October 6, 1949 and also decided not to pursue the case further.

By 1950, following an FBI investigation, U.S. Attorney John McKay wrote to the Attorney General that “this type of case would have absolutely no appeal to a grand jury, and on the contrary would tend to destroy whatever good work we have been able to do in the past presenting these matters to grand juries in an attempt to forestall other law enforcement officers in being brutal while handling their prisoners.” The case was formally closed on January 12, 1950.

In January 1951, Chrispon Charles Sr. filed a $15,000 damages suit against Landry and Sahuc. The outcome is unknown.