WASHINGTON (AP) — Thirty shot, two fatally, at a block party in Baltimore. At least three killed and 10 wounded at an annual Fourth of July bash in Louisiana. A 7-year-old shot dead in Tampa after two groups gathered along a causeway started to fight. Nine others injured when bullets sprayed from a car in the nation’s capital.
A rash of shootings as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July is spiking fears in communities across the country and highlighting the challenges police face in preventing such violence as temperatures warm and festivities move outside.
“ Violence often surges in the summer months, when teens are out of school and there are more social events that can quickly turn deadly as tempers flare. ”
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Policing such events is a delicate balance for law enforcement, who must weigh the right of revelers to gather with the threat of violence that looms in public and private spaces in a nation awash with guns.
“In many ways, their hands are tied because these types of events are often on private property and people may not do anything to violate the law until someone brandishes a firearm and starts shooting,” said Tom Nolan, who was a Boston police officer for nearly three decades. “So can the police do anything to prevent that? I just think it’s an extraordinary challenge for them to be all places at all times and anticipate things that none of us are expecting.”
Violence often surges in the summer months, when teens are out of school and there are more social events that can quickly turn deadly as tempers flare.
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Curfews for young people and increased police presence on the streets are among the strategies cities have historically used to try to combat summer violence.
Police can prepare for parades and other large annual events by monitoring social media chatter ahead of time, requiring a law-enforcement presence for permitted events and changing up their coverage plans depending on how many people are expected when. Ideally, police work with communities who want the protection.
But it’s impossible for law enforcement to monitor every block party or holiday gathering. Vacations can also lead to police departments being thinly staffed over holiday weekends and during summer months, which means calls for loud music and other disturbances can get backed up while police deal with more pressing matters, Nolan said.
“During the time when their services are most in demand, they are stretched far more thinly than they would like to publicly admit,” said Nolan, who was a shift commander in the patrol division.
The gun violence that flared this week in Washington, D.C, Louisiana, Florida, Philadelphia, Texas and Baltimore left more than a dozen dead and almost 60 wounded — including children as young as 2 years old.
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See: Gunman wearing bulletproof vest kills 5 in Philadelphia before being arrested
The wave of killings came as the upscale Chicago suburb of Highland Park was marking the anniversary of last year’s mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade that left seven people dead. Security was tight at events aimed at honoring those killed, and the day was capped by a drone show instead of fireworks to avoid the noise that could sound like gunfire.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the gun violence Wednesday, urging Congress to pass a ban on so-called assault weapons and placing blame on the proliferation of guns in the U.S. “Lives are at stake here, folks. Lives are at stake in communities, the lives of our kids,” she said.
In Baltimore, police knew about the block party at the Brooklyn Homes last year and sent squads to the area to monitor for any potential violence, police said. There wasn’t any.
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“ ‘These are events that are about celebration, about coming together, that are intergenerational and should be sacred to our communities. When a few decide to go and literally create a mass shooting, it’s completely unacceptable.’ ”
— Nick Mosby, Baltimore City Council president
This year, police officials didn’t discover Sunday’s event was happening until the day of. It wasn’t advertised on social media and no one in the community told officers, so law enforcement officials weren’t properly prepared when violence broke out, interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters. He said police are looking at whether they could have done anything better to make sure something like that doesn’t happen again.
“These are events that are about celebration, about coming together, that are intergenerational and should be sacred to our communities. When a few decide to go and literally create a mass shooting, it’s completely unacceptable,” said Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby, urging members of the public to work with police to find those responsible.
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The 28 injured in Baltimore ranged in age from 13 to 32, with more than half of them younger than 18, officials said. Folding tables and plastic cups were scattered on the street, apparently left behind when people ran from the gunshots.
And police can do everything right but still won’t be able to find every gunman who wants to do harm.
The annual celebration in Shreveport, La., where a gunman opened fire late Tuesday had gone on for a decade with no trouble. Shreveport police said that officers who arrived on the scene had a hard time reaching victims because of the volume of parked cars.
“Now we are the victim of a mass shooting in our community simply because individuals decided to come in and disrupt a good time that individuals were having,” Tabatha Taylor, a Shreveport City Council member said. “A family event that has gone on for years in our community has been disrupted by gunfire because somebody decided to pull their guns and do this. Why? Why?”
The Tuesday shooting along the causeway that crosses Tampa Bay, which killed a 7-year-old, stemmed from an argument over Jet Skis that one group said were coming too close to children playing in the water. The night before, three people were killed and eight others were injured when several men fired indiscriminately into a crowd of hundreds that had gathered in a Texas neighborhood after a festival in the area.
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In New York City, the annual J’ouvert and West Indian Day Parade celebrations had been marred by violence for years. Police had to rethink how they approached the event and how they worked with the Brooklyn community ahead of time.
“We all know it. We know the ritual. Pick up the paper the day after and you look at the number of homicides, how many shootings took place? What happened at the parade?” Mayor Eric Adams said last year as he took a victory lap following a peaceful Labor Day weekend. “It didn’t happen this weekend. It did not happen. Why? Because, four days out, we brought together our commissioners, and we said we are going to be a team.”
Federal authorities released the findings of an investigation Thursday that revealed a pattern of unlawful conduct within the Louisiana State Police, including troopers’ use of excessive force, lack of accountability and other problems in “every corner of the state.”
The U.S. Department of Justice review was prompted by the May 2019 killing of Ronald Greene, a 49-year-old Black man, in police custody. He died while handcuffed and shackled face down on the side of a highway, pleading with the troopers and local deputy who beat him following a vehicle pursuit near Monroe.
Department of Justice investigators found systemic problems from a culture of aggression, “unchecked misconduct” and unusual tactics within State Police that encourage troopers to escalate interactions with citizens. These problems and others contribute to a pattern or practice of excessive force that violates the constitutional rights of citizens, according to a report from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
The report details the findings of what is called a “pattern or practice” investigation, which federal authorities use to identify the root causes of problems in local or state law enforcement agencies plagued by repeated scandals and allegations of unconstitutional behavior.
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The state’s Republican leaders have already begun pushing back against the findings. Both Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a joint statement Thursday, claiming the Justice Department report is “old news from the previous administration” and an attempt to “advance a political agenda.” They did not specify what that agenda is.
Louisiana State Police, whose superintendent is a governor’s appointee, has not responded to the report. In an emailed response Friday, LSP spokesperson Capt. Nick Manale deferred questions to the governor and attorney general.
Members of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, along with the ACLU, requested the DOJ probe in 2021 following a series of high-profile beatings of Black motorists and alleged coverups within LSP such as the Ronald Greene case.
Body camera and dashboard camera footage showed the white troopers beat Greene, dragged him by ankle shackles, shocked him with Tasers and left him face down in the road. When Greene tried to roll onto his side, a trooper placed his boot on his back and forced him back down. None of the troopers or sheriff’s deputies on the scene rendered aid when Greene became unresponsive and died before an ambulance arrived.
Case against cops in Ronald Greene’s death could fall apart as judge considers dismissals
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Some of the troopers then mislabeled the video evidence and misdated their reports, concealing their actions and delaying any internal accountability for more than a year. During that time period, one of the troopers involved in Greene’s death “would go on to assault more drivers,” according to the report. The Justice Department did not name the trooper. Former LSP trooper Dakota DeMoss, who was involved in Greene’s death, faced charges in a separate excessive force case in 2021.
However, despite its findings, the Justice Department opted to bring no federal charges against any of the officers involved in the Ronald Greene case. Additionally, local prosecutors in Union Parish fumbled the cases it brought against each of the officers, allowing all of them to either go free or plead to misdemeanors.
The latest of those occurred this week when federal authorities told Greene’s family they would no longer be pursuing charges in the case. A day later, Union Parish Deputy Chris Harpin pleaded no contest to a state charge of simple battery. He received a sentence of supervised probation. In a similar move last year, former LSP Trooper Kory York pleaded no contest to simple battery and also received probation.
The Justice Department reviewed many other incidents in which troopers displayed similar misconduct and violated the rights of drivers. The investigators found that Louisiana State Police reported more than 1,300 uses of force from 2018 to 2023. They reviewed every LSP shooting and hundreds of other randomly selected force incidents from that time period.
“We found that LSP troopers across the state use excessive force,” the report states. “We found LSP’s use of Tasers particularly concerning.”
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Those concerns included troopers’ tendency to quickly escalate the use of excessive force “within the first few moments of encountering a person” and without warning them or giving them a chance to comply with verbal commands. The troopers also use force on many who are restrained or unable to flee and pose no threat, the report states.
In one such incident, an LSP trooper stunned an unarmed man in the back with a Taser while he was lying face down, surrounded by at least five officers.
“The driver did not pose an immediate threat to anyone’s safety, was not armed, did not actively resist arrest, and did not attempt to run,” the report states.
In another incident, a trooper fired 15 bullets from his handgun at a car that got stuck in the mud. Other officers at the scene then joined in on the shooting.
Coroners’ records missing on Ronald Greene death
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One trooper said, “He has no tires, he ain’t going nowhere,” then fired 19 more bullets at the car from his rifle. Together, they fired a total of 61 bullets at the disabled car and then finally dragged the driver out through a broken window. The driver sustained cuts but was not shot.
The review also found troopers are quick to draw their service weapons to deal with seemingly small annoyances. In one case, a trooper conducted a traffic stop on a car for improper lane usage, and even though the driver immediately pulled over, the trooper yelled at him to step out. About 10 seconds later, the trooper walked up to the driver’s window, which was rolled down, and placed his gun a few inches from the back of the driver’s head. He then opened the door, dragged the driver out of the car and slammed him onto the pavement.
Prior to 2022, the State Police Training Academy used a military-style bootcamp approach to training new cadets that was designed to instill stress and to establish a “warrior mindset,” the report states. Policing experts LSP hired to evaluate the agency found it created an adverse learning environment in which “troopers were primed to view everyone as a potential threat.”
The Justice Department also found that State Police does not conduct meaningful internal investigations when legitimate complaints are made. The agency’s internal affairs division either refuses to open investigations, minimizes the misconduct, and clears troopers or reduces discipline without any explanation, the report states.
The DOJ report recommends a series of reforms to State Police training, tactics, policies and accountability mechanisms, though LSP is under no obligation to follow the recommendations.
Taking shape: Leaders for a Better Louisiana, the new organization that formed from the merger of the Council for a Better Louisiana and the Committee of 100 for Economic Development, on Friday announced its officers and board members for 2025. Heather Poole, who previously served as the chair of CABL, and Phillip Rozeman, who previously served as the vice chair and chair-elect of C100, will serve as Better Louisiana’s co-chairs. The organization also announced the election of Scott Ballard as chair-elect, Robert Schneckenburger as secretary and Spencer Martin as treasurer.
Excessive force: The Louisiana State Police for years have used excessive force during arrests and vehicle pursuits, a statewide pattern of misconduct that places the public at “serious risk of harm,” according to a scathing report released Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department. Read more from The Associated Press.
Aftermath: Despite earnings that beat analysts’ expectations, UnitedHealth Group shares dropped after it reported higher medical costs in the fourth quarter. The health care company discussed the results in a call that was its first public event since the assassination of Brian Thompson last month. Thompson ran the company’s insurance unit, the nation’s largest. The call was a delicate communications challenge, as the company’s leaders had to reassure investors of its current and future financial performance while also contending with negative public scrutiny and the loss of a “widely liked” executive. Read more from The Wall Street Journal.
The Louisiana State Police for years have used excessive force during arrests and vehicle pursuits, a statewide pattern of misconduct that places the public at “serious risk of harm,” according to a scathing report released Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department.
A broad civil rights inquiry, announced in 2022 following an Associated Press investigation, found troopers’ use of stun guns “particularly concerning,” and that troopers have used force on people who “do not pose a threat or a flight risk,” often because they are restrained. It cited “systemic failures in supervision” and “chronic underreporting of force.”
“We also found that troopers use excessive force to immediately control encounters, often within the first few moments of encountering a person and without giving the person a warning or an opportunity to comply,” the report said. “Additionally, LSP uses excessive force on people who run from troopers, even when that person is only suspected of a misdemeanor.”
The findings were released two days after federal prosecutors said they would not bring charges in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene, ending a lengthy probe into the white state troopers who stunned, punched and dragged Greene on a roadside following a high-speed chase outside Monroe, Louisiana.
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Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, blasted the report as an attempt “to diminish the service and exceptionality of LSP.”
“We will not let that happen,” Landry said in a statement. “The reputation of our men and women in blue is one of respect, admiration and appreciation, and we will always have their back.”
Col. Robert Hodges, the state police superintendent, told troopers in an internal email obtained by AP that the “isolated incidents” highlighted in the report “are not a fair assessment of today’s Louisiana State Police or our agency’s incredibly proud history and culture.”
The “pattern-or-practice” inquiry followed AP reporting that found Greene’s arrest was among at least a dozen cases in which state troopers and their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct in the agency. In one case, a white trooper pummeled a Black man 18 times with a flashlight following a traffic stop, leaving him with a broken jaw, broken ribs and a gash to his head.
The state police withheld body-camera footage of Greene’s death for two years, but the AP published it in 2021. The video showed troopers swarming Greene even as he appeared to raise his hands, plead for mercy and wail, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!” Troopers repeatedly jolted Greene with stun guns before he could even get out of the car, with one of them wrestling him to the ground, putting him in a chokehold and punching him in the face. Another called him a profanity.
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The 32-page report alleges that Greene’s death “demonstrated serious failures” that “were not isolated but part of a larger pattern or practice of law enforcement conduct that deprives people in Louisiana of their rights under the Constitution.”
The report cites one case in which a trooper “slammed a bar patron to the ground” merely for failing to provide his ID quickly enough. “Rather than explaining the reason for the request or trying to persuade the man to cooperate,” the report says, “the trooper immediately grabbed the man’s arm and forced him to the ground, injuring his nose.”
The Justice Department also examined whether state police engage in “racially discriminatory policing” but made no findings “at this time” as to whether that contributed to the misconduct.
The report recommends — but does not mandate — a long list of remedial measures, while also crediting the agency with making ”much-needed reforms after video of Mr. Greene’s death became public.”
“More reforms are needed to remedy the unlawful conduct we found,” the report says.
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