Sheriff gets profane over why it took so long to arrest Joe McKnight's alleged killer
Ronald Gasser, the man suspected of killing former NFL and college football star Joe McKnight, was arrested on Monday and charged with manslaughter.
After Gasser allegedly fired three shots in a road rage incident in New Orleans on Thursday, authorities released the 54-year-old without charges on Friday night, citing Louisiana's "Stand Your Ground" law, which states that a person is justified in using deadly force in certain situations.
Gasser's release led to protests from NAACP representatives and an outcry on social media, as people criticized the slow-moving justice system. At a press conference on Tuesday, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand defended his department's investigation and scolded those who doubted it.
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Normand then got increasingly combative, reading a handful of the expletive-laced social media comments directed at law enforcement. "[I]t's not fair for (law enforcement) to be called 'You punk ass uncle Tom coon. We saw you sell out to them. You rat ass faggot, punk.' That's the tone of what we're calling our elected leaders for standing up and simply saying 'let justice prevail and let the process take its course,'" Normand said.
This was on live TV, keep in mind.
Asked why he read such explicit slurs, Normand said, "I hope it gets everybody to realize how crazy we're getting."
Normand stood by the investigation, which involved interviews with 160 people over the weekend and talked to 70 businesses in the area for video surveillance. Gasser, who never asked for a lawyer, gave more than 10 hours of interviews. Key witnesses emerged over the weekend, Normand said.
McKnight and Gasser were driving "erratically and yelling at each other," according to the Associated Press, and came to a stop in a New Orleans suburb, where the dispute continued and Gasser eventually shot McKnight three times.
Normand said McKnight had a gun in his vehicle, both of which belonged to his stepfather, but no evidence suggested he had plans to use it.
McKnight was a high school football legend, leading John Curtis High School to three Louisiana state championships. He attended USC in 2007 hyped as "the next Reggie Bush" and played for the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs.
He was 28 years old.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
