In the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, a 31-year-old man named Henry Glover was shot and killed on September 2, 2005. His death set in motion a long and arduous quest for justice for his family, uncovering a dark tale of police misconduct and a subsequent cover-up. The ordeal began when Glover was shot in the chest by a New Orleans police officer in the Algiers section of the city.
Following the shooting, a good Samaritan named William Tanner discovered the wounded
Glover and, along with Glover's brother Edward King and another man, Bernard Calloway, attempted to seek medical help for him. They drove Glover in Tanner's Chevrolet Malibu to a temporary police encampment set up at a local elementary school. Instead of receiving aid, they were met with hostility from the officers present. The men reported being physically and verbally attacked by the police, who refused to provide any medical assistance to the dying Glover. He was left to die in the back of the car.
After Glover succumbed to his injuries, the police officers seized Tanner's car with Glover's body still inside. What happened next was a gruesome attempt to conceal the truth. The car was driven to a levee near the Mississippi River and set on fire. Glover's body was burned so severely that it was reduced to charred remains and bone fragments. For years, the circumstances of his death remained a mystery, with his family tirelessly seeking answers.
The break in the case came through investigative journalism, which brought national attention to the story. This led to a federal investigation and ultimately, the indictment of several police officers. In 2010, a federal jury convicted former NOPD officer David Warren of a civil rights violation for the shooting of Henry Glover and of using a firearm during a crime of manslaughter. Another officer, Gregory McRae, was convicted of burning Glover's body in the car. A third officer, Travis McCabe, was found guilty of writing a false report about the shooting.
However, the legal battles were far from over. In a later turn of events, a federal appeals court overturned Warren's conviction, ruling that he should have been tried separately from the other officers. In his retrial in 2013, Warren was acquitted of the charges related to Glover's death. Despite this setback, Gregory McRae's conviction for burning the body was upheld. The family of Henry Glover continued to fight for a formal acknowledgment of his death as a homicide, seeking to have the classification on his death certificate changed.
