On a Sunday morning in New Orleans, May 24, 2015, the life of 45-year-old male, James Bennett Jr., a dedicated police officer, was brought to a tragic end. A veteran of 15 years in law enforcement, Bennett was serving with the Housing Authority of New Orleans Police Department. He had been working an overtime shift, patrolling a construction site at the Guste Homes Public Housing Complex in Central City.
Shortly after 7:00 a.m., his patrol car was discovered crashed near the intersection of Erato and Freret Streets. When fellow officers responded to the scene, they found Officer Bennett inside his vehicle, having been fatally shot.
The investigation that followed determined that Bennett had been ambushed and killed by an unknown assailant. The attack was described as a heinous and cowardly act, leaving the law enforcement community and the residents he served in shock and mourning. Despite their efforts and pleas to the public for information, detectives struggled to find substantial leads. The trail grew cold, and for a time, the investigation into the murder of Officer Bennett seemed to be at a standstill. The case was one of the city's most prominent unsolved murders, a source of ongoing frustration for investigators.
Nearly a year after the shooting, in May 2016, the investigation received its first significant break. Officer Bennett's service weapon, which had been stolen during the incident, was recovered. The gun was found in the possession of an 18-year-old man named Charles Garner, who was arrested during a traffic stop less than a mile from where Bennett had been killed. Garner was taken into custody and booked on a count of illegal possession of a stolen firearm. While he was interrogated by homicide detectives, he was not immediately named as a suspect in Officer Bennett's death. The recovery of the weapon, however, provided a crucial piece of evidence, renewing hope among federal and local officials that it could finally lead them to the person responsible for the officer's murder.
