NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department released bodycam footage of officers exchanging gunfire with a man they originally found "unresponsive" inside of a car near St. Claude and Franklin Avenue on November 6.
According to Superintendent Shaun Ferguson, paramedics responded to the call of an unresponsive man and upon inspection they found him to have a .22 caliber, assault-style weapon.
A couple of NOPD officers arrived on the scene and the man, identified as Dante Frazier, drove off and struck a nearby pole.
When officers approached the car, Frazier was asked to pull over into a nearby gas station parking lot, which he did. He was then asked to get out of the car with his hands up and Ferguson said it appeared he was going to do so, but then he grabbed his weapon and ran off.
The officers chased after him and Ferguson said Frazier fired at the officers, who fired back.
Ferguson said NOPD officers shot 16 times but apparently did not strike the man. Frazier fired 9 times, according to Ferguson, and apparently struck himself in the foot as his shoe had a hole near the toe and what appeared to be gunpowder.
Frazier was taken to the hospital to treat his wound and upon release he was booked into the Orleans Parish Justice Center. He is facing two counts of aggravated battery on a peace officer.
Both of the officers remain on administrative reassignment.
"We are very grateful that no one lost their life," he said. Ferguson went on to praise the officers and cited the incident as an example of the dangers officers face, even when responding to an apparently non-violent situation of a man appearing to be asleep in a car.