New Orleans LEO killed with own weapon during struggle...

**OXCOPS** · 01-28-08, 05:23 PM

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pb.../NEWS/80128023

NEW ORLEANS — A man wanted for questioning in a rape overpowered a police officer who was trying to handcuff him and then shot her to death with her own weapon, police Superintendent Warren Riley said.

The officer’s identity was being withheld pending notification of her family.

It happened around 10 a.m. Monday in a parking lot near a busy intersection in the crime-plagued Central City neighborhood.

The officer was pursuing a man who was wanted for questioning in a rape. She stopped him and began questioning him, Riley said.

Riley said the man was sitting down when the officer reached out to handcuff him, he pushed her away and the two struggled for several minutes.

During the struggle the officer was able to use her radio to call for backup but the man, described by Riley as being “twice her size,” grabbed her weapon and shot her multiple times, Riley said.

After shooting the woman, the man did not flee, Sgt. Joe Narcisse said. The suspect was apprehended by police.

Riley said the police have several witnesses to the shooting. The parking lot is located outside of a food store, laundromat and Urban Avenue clothing store in Central City. The struggle, however, took place behind the police officer’s vehicle, which may have shielded the violence from many who were at the busy intersection, he said.

**k-9max** · 01-28-08, 05:30 PM

, Rest Easy!

**Buttercup** · 01-28-08, 05:33 PM

RIP

**PapaBear** · 01-28-08, 06:00 PM

Damn, the year is not starting out too well. This is the ultimate in our profession. But, to be overpowered is very tragic. RIP Officer! Your loss will be avenged.

**kjlaw** · 01-28-08, 07:39 PM

Rest easy Sister

**narcodog** · 01-28-08, 08:01 PM

R.I.P. Looks as if it's going to be another bad year.

**iso607** · 01-28-08, 08:05 PM

Rest in peace Sister.

Thoughts and prayers to the family.

**smokey703** · 01-28-08, 11:16 PM

Rest Easy Sister.

**lewisipso** · 01-28-08, 11:20 PM

We were just talking about this. RIP.

**Just KC** · 01-28-08, 11:27 PM

My biggest fear....which led to me going into dispatch instead......

RIP

**Jenna** · 01-29-08, 02:02 AM

Rest in peace.

**kjlaw** · 02-14-08, 05:40 PM

Man indicted in NOPD officer's killing

by Gwen Filosa, The Times-Picayune Thursday February 14, 2008, 12:57 PM

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY TED JACKSONNOPD homocide detectives Anthony Caprera and Joseph Catalanotto walk Bernel Johnson, 44 from Orleans Parish lockup.
An Orleans Parish grand jury today indicted Bernel P. Johnson for the first-degree murder of New Orleans Police Officer Nicola Cotton, who was gunned down Jan. 28 in Central City after trying to detain Johnson, who has a history of mental illness.
Johnson, 44, has been described by his family as a paranoid schizophrenic. He remains in jail without any chance for bond -- the legal standard for anyone accused of capital murder.
Johnson's case hasn't yet been allotted to a section of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.
First-degree murder carries either life in prison or lethal injection upon conviction. Johnson, known among the homeless community in New Orleans before his arrest, appeared in court Tuesday for a preliminary hearing, during which he repeatedly asked a judge for military lawyers.
Cotton, 24, was killed with her own service weapon, a .40-caliber Glock handgun, which police say Johnson wrested from her when she tried to handcuff him in a parking lot off Earhart Boulevard.
Security cameras from a nearby business captured the confrontation, police and prosecutors say. This week, Johnson's defense lawyers were denied early access to the tape by Magistrate Judge Gerard Hansen. Orleans Parish prosecutors said the defense team is entitled to the tape only after an indictment is issued.
Johnson hasn't yet had the chance to enter a plea to the indictment, but his defense lawyers appear poised to launch an insanity defense.
An Orleans Parish jury hasn't sent a convicted killer to death row since 1997, when Phillip Anthony was condemned for the triple killing at the Louisiana Pizza Kitchen in the French Quarter.