Louisiana Officer Found Guilty of Manslaughter in Shooting of Boy

An Avoyelles Parish, LA, jury convicted a former Marksville deputy marshal of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter Friday in a shooting at the end of a chase that left a 6-year-old boy dead and the boy's father seriously wounded.

Derrick Stafford, a 33-year-old former Marksville police officer and part-time city marshal, left the courthouse in shackles after the jury returned to the courtroom to announce their verdict by a 10-2 vote following nearly three hours of deliberation, the Advocate reports.

Stafford had been charged with counts of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting, which came after 26-year-old Christopher Few led deputies on a two-mile chase through the town just after 9 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2015. Stafford and another officer, Norris Greenhouse Jr., fired a total of 18 rounds at Few's Kia Sportage, killing Jeremy Mardis, Few's 6-year-old son, who sat buckled in the front seat.

Both Stafford and Greenhouse were arrested just days after the shooting killed Jeremy, an autistic first-grader. At the trial, prosecutors repeatedly showed clips from a body camera video of the shooting that showed Few's hands raised out of the window as the shots struck the vehicle.