One of two Louisiana cops jailed over the death of a 6-year-old boy and the wounding of his father had a threatening confrontation with one of the victims before, a family member says.
Megan Dixon, who is engaged to the wounded father, Chris Few, told The Advocate that officer Norris Greenhouse had started messaging her on Facebook before the shooting. Greenhouse, her high school classmate, also showed up to see her at the house she and Few were sharing, the site reports.
“I told Chris and Chris confronted him about it and told him, ‘Next time you come to my house I’m going to hurt you,’” Dixon said.
It’s unclear exactly when that incident occurred, or whether the trio were in touch before the shooting.
Greenhouse, a Marksville city marshal, and fellow officer Derrick Stafford remain in jail on murder charges after they opened fire on Few’s car last Tuesday in Marksville, wounding Few and killing his 6-year-old son, Jeremy Mardis. They’re being held on $1 million bail as investigators search for a motive in the case.
When the shooting happened, police said Few was being pursued by officers in his SUV, and they fired at least 18 rounds in his direction. Police initially said that Greenhouse and Stafford were trying to serve Few a warrant when he attempted to reverse his SUV into the officers. However, Col. Mike Edmonson, superintendent of Louisiana State Police, said there’s no evidence of a warrant for Few and couldn’t confirm that Few attempted to back into the officers. Edmonson also said no gun was found that could be linked to Few.
There are also reports of video evidence showing that Few had his hands up when he was fired upon.
Few’s son Jeremy, a first-grader in elementary school, died at the scene. He was the youngest person killed by police in the U.S. this year, according to unofficial data collected by The Guardian.
Few’s attorney, Mark Jeansonne, declined to comment due to a gag order handed down by a district court on Monday, barring any parties involved in the case from speaking to the media. He has said previously that, “This was not a threatening situation for the police.”
And before the gag order was put in place, The Advocate tracked down evidence that Greenhouse and Stafford have a checkered history. There are more than five pending civil suits naming Stafford as a defendant, and two of those name Greenhouse as a co-defendant. They cover a range of allegations from Stafford using stun guns on helpless victims to both officers lying under oath.
The Louisiana Attorney General’s Office will be prosecuting the case, though no court date has yet been set.
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