The court heard that Bowen used an unauthorised AK-47 to spray bullets at a group of civilians hiding behind a concrete barrier. Another officer, Anthony Villavaso, received 38 years for the same crime. Two officers – sergeants Kenneth Bowen and Robert Gisevius – were sentenced on Wednesday to 40 years in prison years for killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding four other people.

Senior officers spread false assertions that martial law was declared and encouraged the shooting of looters. Prosecutors described a force in disarray during the hurricane, with some officers dedicated to saving lives while others armed themselves with their own automatic weapons and behaved like vigilantes. The federal investigation revealed a coverup that involved planted evidence, invented witnesses and falsified police reports that prosecutors said exposed a culture of corruption and a code of silence in the New Orleans police department. The policemen were prosecuted in federal court after Louisiana state authorities declined to charge them.

Louisiana serial killer during katrina