TheLoop21.com

By: Corrinne (Add to your loop)
Sat, 07/17/2010 - 11:11

As reported by HipHopWired.com, a Mississippi man has been arrested and charged with shooting and wounding three men in what prosecutors said was a racially motivated attack in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

According to published reports, Roland Bourgeois Jr., a white man, is charged in a five-count indictment with firing a shotgun at three Black men in New Orleans's historic Algiers Point neighborhood while they tried to leave the center of the city during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. 

Authorities report that Bourgeois and others discussed shooting black people and defending the neighborhood from "outsiders" after the storm and allegedly warned a black resident of Algiers Point that "anything coming up this street darker than a brown paper bag is getting shot."

Bourgeois, who is now a resident of Mississippi, has been charged with committing a hate crime with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

A date for his initial court appearance wasn't immediately set and he is not in custody. Authorities state that the reason for Bourgeois' lack of confinement is in part because he is apparently "in very poor health" and wasn't considered "a danger or a risk of flight."

The case against Bourgeois is one of several post-Katrina investigations opened by the Justice Department's civil rights division.