MARKSVILLE , La., Nov. 11 (UPI) — One of two Louisiana marshals charged in the fatal shooting of a 6-year-old boy may have had a previous argument with the boy’s father, who was also shot.
Derrick Stafford, 32, and , 23, local marshals in Marksville, La.,, were charged with attempted murder and second-degree murder this week, and were jailed on bonds of $1 million each.
They were accused in the Nov. 3 shooting death of Jeremy Mardis, 6, and the injury of his father, Christopher Few. The boy and his father were shot in a vehicle after a brief car chase. State police said at least 18 bullets were fired.
Megan Dixon, Few’s girlfriend, told news organizations that Few and Greenhouse were high school classmates, and Greenhouse had recently sent her Facebook postings and visited her at the house she and Few shared. She said Few confronted Greenhouse and threatened him.
Stafford has been accused in the past of violence against citizens. He was sued in 2012 by a woman who said he used a stun gun to subdue her while she was in handcuffs. Another said her arm was broken as he intervened in a fight on a school bus.
In 2014 a jury awarded $50,000 to a man who said Stafford arrested him in retaliation for filing a complaint against another law enforcement officer. Stafford was also indicted for alleged rapes in 2004 and 2011, charges which were later dismissed.
The FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice are assisting the Louisiana State Police in the investigation of the Nov. 3 shooting. Jeremy Mardis was buried Monday in Hattiesburg, Miss.
