In the summer of 2019, on July 25th, the life of 38-year-old Josef Delon Richardson was cut short in a motel room in Port Allen, Louisiana. Mr. Richardson, a male, was in a room at the Budget 7 Motel with his girlfriend, Jessica Clouatre, when members of the River West Narcotics Division executed a raid. During the raid, West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Deputy Vance Matranga Jr. fired a single shot that struck Richardson in the back of the neck, severing his spinal cord and causing his death.
An autopsy later confirmed that a single bullet to the back of his neck was the cause of death.
Accounts of the moments leading up to the fatal shooting diverge sharply. Deputy Matranga stated that he fired his weapon because he believed Richardson was reaching for a weapon. This official narrative, however, is contested by the sole eyewitness, Jessica Clouatre. According to Clouatre, Richardson had his hands in the air in a posture of surrender and was in the process of being taken into custody peacefully when he was shot just seconds after deputies entered the room. Richardson's family supported this account, stating that he was unarmed and clad only in his underwear at the time of the shooting.
In the aftermath of the shooting, the incident was investigated, and in March of the following year, state prosecutors announced that Deputy Vance Matranga Jr. would not face any criminal charges for the death of Josef Richardson. This decision did not mark the end of the legal battles surrounding the case. Both Jessica Clouatre and the family of Josef Richardson filed separate lawsuits against Deputy Matranga and West Baton Rouge Parish. The lawsuits characterize the deputy's actions as 'excessive,' 'reckless,' and demonstrating a 'callous disregard' for Richardson's life and civil rights.
