A top Republican state lawmaker in Louisiana on Thursday announced a bipartisan investigation into the 2019 death of Ronald Greene, a Black man who died in police custody.
State House Speaker Clay Schexnayder (R) said in a statement to The Hill that he launched the investigate committee in response to a recent Associated Press report revealing Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) kept quiet about the true nature of Greene’s death during a reelection season.
Police had claimed Greene died as the result of a motor vehicle crash, but body camera footage reviewed by the AP shows he was beaten by troopers, shocked with stun guns and dragged by his ankle restraints.
On Jan. 31, following the AP report, Schexnayder wrote on Facebook he had discussed the incident with the president of the state Senate and the state’s attorney general. On Thursday, he said “the truth must come out to show what happened in this case and in the events that followed.”
“The actions taken that night and the cryptic decisions and statements made every step of the way since then have eroded public trust,” Schexnayder said in a statement. “That trust can only be regained with a transparent and robust search for the whole truth in this matter.”
When contacted by The Hill, the governor’s office pointed to a Thursday statement from Edwards in which he welcomed “any and all legislative oversight” and hoped “that this will be a productive, nonpartisan discussion of how to continue the ongoing reforms at Louisiana State Police so that what happened the night of Ronald Greene’s death never happens again.”
“I am certain that any fair and impartial investigation will conclude that I made no attempt to impede or interfere with any investigation into Mr. Greene’s death. Any allegation to the contrary is simply not true,” he said.
The committee includes eight state lawmakers from the House, both Democrats and Republicans. The committee’s chairman, Tanner Magee, said in a statement that lawmakers were hoping to bring closure to Greene’s family.
“The members of this select committee understand the seriousness of this issue and hope to bring some closure to the family and public at large in this matter,” Magee said.
Other probes into Greene’s death are also open. The Department of Justice has an ongoing criminal investigation headed by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana and the agency’s civil rights division.
Greene’s family sued the Louisiana State Police in 2020, arguing they “left him beaten, bloodied and in cardiac arrest.”
Greene, 49, died in May 2019 after a high-speed police chase outside of Monroe, La. While police originally claimed Greene died in a car crash, body camera footage viewed by the AP tells a different story.
“I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!” Greene screamed as he was beaten and dragged by officers, the AP reported.
Text messages reviewed by the AP reveal that state troopers told Edwards they had engaged in a “violent, lengthy struggle” with Greene after the crash, but the governor kept silent on the matter until after his reelection.
Edwards’s office said the governor only learned of the true nature of the incident in September 2020, after receiving a copy of the family’s civil lawsuit, the AP reported.
The state held one officer accountable for the crash. Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth, who said he “beat the ever-living f— out of” Greene in an audio recording obtained by AP news, died in a car crash in 2020 after learning he was going to be fired for the incident.
An autopsy revealed Greene died from a combination of cocaine, injuries from the crash and wounds inflicted by the police.