Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand defended the department’s decision not to “rush to judgment” on Friday amid criticism.
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“It’s not fair to be called, ‘You punk ass Uncle Tom coon, we saw you sell out to them, you rat ass f*ggot punk, ‘” Normand said. “Mr. McKnight pulls around on the right hand side, comes to a stop on the side of Mr. Gasser’s vehicle at Holmes and Behrman”. “The windows are rolled down, and they began to enter into a verbal altercation while still being in each other’s vehicle”.
Key witnesses were located on Saturday and Monday evening, Normand said, and they might not have come forward had authorities rushed forward with an arrest to appease critics of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The following day, Sheriff Normand of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department held a press conference during which he claimed that witness accounts of the incident were “factually incorrect”, and that Gasser shot McKnight three times from the interior of his vehicle through the passenger window, outside of which McKnight was standing. McKnight was not armed and there was no gun near his body, officials said.
During the announcement of the charges, Sheriff Normand became impassioned when he referred to a witness who “lied”.
The Louisiana sheriff overseeing the case of a gunman accused of fatally shooting ex-NFL running back Joe McKnight announced manslaughter charges Tuesday – and then lashed out at the community for its response to the killing.
Johanna and Jonathan McKnight want justice for their brother, and said they are willing to wait. When it comes to the Joe McKnight incident, as the Los Angeles Times points out, it isn’t clear just how the stand your ground law comes into play.
A road-rage incident turned fatal shooting was not the way anybody would have imagined or hoped Joe McKnight would pop back into headlines.
The two were surrounded by other vehicles and Gasser told deputies that McKnight made multiple threats against his life.
Gasser was released last week without charges pending further investigation of McKnight’s death.
“Shame on you!” Normand said. Duncan asked Johanna and Jonathan McKnight. And I’m sure you see the emotion in me because it’s not fair. “We don’t want to jump to any conclusions”, Johanna McKnight, McKnight’s sister, said Saturday.
McKnight played for four years in the National Football League with the New York Jets and the Kansas City Chiefs.
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McKnight also played college football with the University of Southern California Trojans. He was drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the New York Jets, for whom he played three seasons.
