Two US Marshals have been charged with murder after the fatal shooting of a six-year-old boy in Louisiana.
Jeremy Mardis and his father, Chris Few, were in a car when they were shot in Marksville on Tuesday night.
Few, who was driving, was critically injured and officers Norris Greenhouse and Derrick Stafford have also been charged with attempted murder in connection with the incident.
The head of the state police, Colonel Mike Edmonson, announced the arrests at a late-night press conference on Friday.
The decision was taken after body-camera footage from the two men was assessed.
“It is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen, and I will leave it at that,” said Edmonson.
Mardis died at the scene after officers opened fire on the vehicle following a chase.
It is still unclear what led them to pursue Few and what triggered the shooting. No weapon was found in the vehicle.
The parish coroner said earlier this week that the officers were serving a warrant on Few when he fled, but Edmonson later said he had no information about a warrant.
Edmonson said that the two officers, Norris Greenhouse and Derrick Stafford, were being booked on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting.
Both were working secondary jobs in Marksville as marshals when the shooting happened, Edmonson said.
Two other officers were involved in the incident. When Edmonson was asked whether he anticipated any more arrests, he said: “We’ll see where it takes us.”
Few’s 57-year-old stepfather, Morris German, has accused the marshals of indiscriminately opening fire on the vehicle.
German said Few was heavily sedated in hospital, unable to talk and had bullet fragments lodged in his brain and lung. He described Few as a loving father and added the man’s son “was his whole life”.
German added that the six-year-old had been diagnosed with autism, describing him as a delightful child who “loved everything, everybody”. German said the boy had no siblings and the family had recently moved to Marksville from Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
“I know a six-year-old should not have been shot,” German said.
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