NEW ORLEANS — Mayor LaToya Cantrell and NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson expressed strong emotions over a video that was recorded and posted to social media platforms this week showing an execution-style slaying of a woman in broad daylight on a public street.
The video in question shows what is believed to be the killing of Cassandra Jones by B.J. Brown.
Brown was taken into custody in Tennessee after he was accused of shooting a police officer in Tennessee just hours after the recorded shooting of Jones.
The video, which seems to be filmed from a nearby apartment, shows a woman on the ground writhing in pain and then a man armed with a long gun, pacing down the sidewalk. At some point the man places the gun near the woman and shoots twice.
The horrifying video was posted to social media accounts and shared several times, including by a teen to her mother.
“You know how I got the video?” said Cantrell at a press conference on public safety around the Essence Fest and July 4th celebrations. “My 14-year-old daughter sent it to me. So, I’m talking with her.”
Ferguson likewise was appalled, and he called out citizens who take time to record a crime rather than calling 911 to try to prevent it or to aid in capturing the criminal.
“We have to check our mental status as a society,” he said. “When we ask for any and all evidence, we want to get it to further our investigation, but when we’re video recording an incident and then posting it on social media… I think it’s disrespectful to the families.”
“They’re recording instead of calling 911 and we have to move beyond that. We have to get help to those in distress.”
Ferguson said that if you happen to have a recording of a crime and want to send it to police, that is certainly one thing they would champion, but he said putting it on social media is distasteful and disrespectful.