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New Orleans Police Department- Public Information Office

NOPD Turns Over the Investigation into the North Bernadotte Street Police-Involved Shooting to Orleans DA

(April 27, 2012)-  Today NOPD Homicide detectives delivered to the Orleans Parish District Attorney the official report of the investigation into the police-involved shooting in Mid-City that left one man dead and two New Orleans Police officers critically wounded. 

On the morning of March 1^st, a traffic stop in the 500-block of North Bernadotte Street ended with an exchange of gunfire.  20-year-old Justin Sipp, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was fatally wounded.  The driver of the car, Justin Sipp’s brother, Earl, was shot in the leg.  Officers Anthony Mayfield, Jr. and Michael Asevedo were both shot multiple times and suffered severe wounds.

Minutes after this shooting happened, members of the Force Investigation Team (FIT) of the Public Integrity Bureau as well as NOPD’s Homicide detectives were working together to collect facts, conduct interviews and gather evidence.  The purpose of this new partnership is to create a more transparent, accurate and fact-based investigative process for the Department.  FIT also worked with Homicide to investigate the shooting death of 20-year-old Wendell Allen.   The report detailing that investigation was handed to the District Attorney yesterday afternoon.

In both the Sipp and Allen cases, the Independent Police Monitor as well as the 2 FBI agents who work daily in the NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau, monitored both investigations from start to finish.

“These cases have been traumatic for the Allens, the Sipps and the families of the two officers who were hospitalized in Intensive Care for many weeks”, said Superintendent Ronal Serpas.  “What I can assure them is that- with our new investigative system in place- we’re providing the most accurate facts of both cases to the District Attorney’s Office.  This Department has conducted transparent, thorough investigations, and is confident in its findings.” 

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Contact:  Remi Braden

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