Bail set at $1 million for Louisiana deputy marshals charged in boy's death
By Bryn Stole
MARKSVILLE, La. (Reuters) - Two Louisiana deputy marshals charged with killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring his father in a hail of gunfire will be required to surrender their service firearms and badges if they are able to post $1 million in bail ordered by a judge on Monday.
Judge William Bennett set bail for the deputy marshals, Derrick Stafford, 32, and Norris Greenhouse Jr., 23, during a closed hearing at the Avoyelles Parish Jail, hours before the boy's family laid him to rest.
Jeremy Mardis, who was autistic, was buckled into the front passenger seat of his father Chris Few's car last week when the two local marshals fired 18 times at the vehicle after chasing it in central Louisiana, state police said.
Police body camera footage appeared to show Few, 25, putting his hands in the air before the marshals started shooting, CBS News reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement source.
Stafford and Greenhouse, who were working part-time for the Marksville city marshal, are charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder. The judge ordered them held under home confinement should they be released from jail.
Local authorities initially said the deputy marshals were trying to arrest Few on a warrant when he fled by car.
But Colonel Michael Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said there was no record of a warrant.
"That simply just wasn't true," he told CNN on Monday.
Edmonson said state police were trying to figure out why the officers chased Few and what caused them to shoot. No firearms were found in Few's vehicle, he said.
Megan Dixon, Few's girlfriend, said they had been at a bar the night of the shooting. Both left separately after getting into an argument. Dixon said the chase began shortly after Few approached her while stopped at an intersection.
Dixon also said Few and Greenhouse recently had a confrontation. Greenhouse, a former high school classmate of Dixon's, had sent her several messages on Facebook and showed up at the home Dixon and Few shared.
"I told Chris and Chris confronted him about it and told him next time you come to my house I'm going to hurt you," Dixon said.
State police announced the charges against Stafford and Greenhouse on Friday after reviewing footage of the shooting captured on another officer's body camera.
The footage has not been released, but Edmonson has called it the most disturbing thing he had seen.
(Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Victoria Cavaliere and Himani Sarkar)
