11/2/2022
Darren Bridges was found guilty of first-degree murder in the October 2017 fatal shooting of New Orleans police officer Marcus McNeil.
An Orleans Parish jury returned the verdict Tuesday night (Sept. 27) after nearly three hours of deliberations.
Jurors also found Bridges guilty of obstruction of justice, aggravated assault on a police officer, possession of a firearm by a felon and four narcotics charges.
The 29-year-old McNeil, known to fellow officers by his nickname “Milk Dud,” was on patrol in the Seventh District (New Orleans East) shortly after midnight on Oct. 13, 2017, when he answered a call to investigate a suspicious person near Tara Lane and Lake Forest Boulevard.
During a confrontation with Bridges, prosecutors said McNeil was shot multiple times. Williams, who prosecuted the case with assistant district attorney Andre Gaudin, said Bridges stood over McNeil to fire a fatal shot to the back of his head in what the DA described to jurors as “an execution.”
Though the killing was captured on video surveillance cameras and police body-worn cameras, defense attorneys Kerry Cuccia and Christian Bonin attempted to convince jurors that the images did not tell the whole story of their client’s encounter with police, and argued the homicide could be seen as justifiable.
© CopyRights RawNews1st
