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New Orleans Police Officer Indicted in Drug Raid Killing

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #747)

In an unusual step, the New Orleans police officer who shot and killed an unarmed young man during a March drug raid aimed at small-time marijuana distribution has been indicted on manslaughter charges. Officer Joshua Colclough was indicted last Thursday and turned himself in for booking the following day.

Wendell Allen (family photo)
Colclough shot and killed Wendell Allen, 20, as he served a search warrant at Allen's Gentilly residence. Colclough encountered Allen at the top of a stairway in the house and shot him once in the chest. No weapon was found.

Allen was the 15th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year. The death toll is now at 42 and will go to 43 later today when we post an article about the latest drug war killing, this one in an Iowa City drug raid late last week.

No officers have been indicted in any of those deaths. And despite drug war deaths at the rate of more than one a week in recent years, no police officers have been indicted in any of those incidents since an Ohio police officer was indicted in the killing of an unarmed woman and the wounding of the baby she was holding during a January 2008 SWAT raid. That officer was indicted on two misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide and negligent injury, but later acquitted.

The unusual indictment in the Allen killing came after the shooting generated outrage in the city, including threats from the Louisiana Justice Institute to sue the city if it did not release information about the case and take it to a grand jury. It also comes at a police department that just last month agreed to comprehensive reforms under the eye of the US Justice Department as a result of a pattern of misconduct in the department.

Officer Colclough spent the weekend in jail under a $300,000 bond. A bail reduction hearing was set for Monday.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

toxicsludge (not verified)

It's about damn time a cop was finally held accountable in the MURDER of civilians under the cloak of 'drug raids'.far too many have been killed by over zealous cops and the ridiculous drug war. Take these 'lawless' cops and put them in prison as you would do to any of us.

Tue, 08/21/2012 - 2:29pm Permalink
Skunk Monk (not verified)

Drugs kill is what the imbecilic politicians, some media and cops say and they are right but for the wrong reasons. If you take drugs they are only to happy to storm into your house gung ho and riddle you with bullets in the name of keeping you safe. And they are right since you won't be able to harm yourself if your dead and this seems to be their new motto. The cop won't go to jail over this since they have a license to kill and do whatever they want(either beat the hell out of you or a bullet, they have got a penchant for both). The cops are a far cry away from the likeable buffoon like characters of police academy films and they are now major league criminals gunning down innocent people all over the place.The C.O.Ps are not citizens on patrol they are criminals on patrol. They have the seal of approval of all their colleagues judges and politicians are all complicit in these evil wrong doings since they know about these crimes and do nothing about them.

Wed, 08/22/2012 - 1:44pm Permalink

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