Team 4 Investigation: Post-Katrina Shootings Discussed On VideoJim Parsons Reports From New OrleansPOSTED: 8:41 pm EDT July 9,
2009 NEW ORLEANS -- A man is on tape admitting he and others shot more than 30 people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and two Pittsburgh men are sharing the powerful piece of video they shot while volunteering in New Orleans in 2005.Team 4 investigative reporter Jim Parsons has linked the tape to an ongoing federal investigation. Now, the FBI is asking new questions.The following is a transcript of the Team 4 report that first aired July 9, 2009, on WTAE Channel 4 Action News at 11 p.m.Video:
The federal investigation began earlier this year, after reporting by two national news organizations exposed a group of white vigilantes in New Orleans who shot African-Americans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. Now, the FBI is taking a look at that tape from Pittsburgh.In the days after Hurricane Katrina blasted ashore, two private detectives from Pittsburgh -- Mike Orsini and Istvan Balogh -- drove to New Orleans to volunteer.Mike Orsini in 2005: "Highway 10 is wiped out. You can't go on Highway 10 coming in from Mississippi."For almost two weeks, Orsini and Balogh provided armed security for firefighters at Station 20 in the Algiers Point section of New Orleans -- a mostly white, middle-class neighborhood that did not get flooded. Orsini recalls seeing as many as five dead bodies around Algiers Point.Mike Orsini, private investigator: "Nobody took care of these bodies, and these were all individuals who had been shot."Parsons: "And these were not hurricane victims?"Orsini: "These were not hurricane victims. This is the aftermath. They were just shot."What happened in Algiers Point during Katrina has recently come under federal investigation following reports filed earlier this year by journalist A.C. Thompson for propublica.org and The Nation.Thompson: "The stories that kept coming up over and over again were about shooting suspected looters, and white folks shooting African-Americans whom they believed to be criminals, outlaws or looters."One of the shooting victims who made the mistake of walking through Algiers Point is Donnell Herrington.Herrington: "I was living in the neighborhood close to Algiers, but we had to go through Algiers Point to get to the ferry."Parsons: "That's where you were headed?"Herrington: "Exactly."As Herrington headed toward the Algiers ferry, without warning, he says, a group of armed men appeared yelling racial insults and fired a shotgun blast at him. The buckshot tore into Herrington's neck. A second shot caught him in the back and arm.Herrington: "I just couldn't grasp no reason why this guy just shot me."Istvan Balogh in 2005: "All I can say is this situation here is absolutely unbelievable."Istvan Balogh, the Pittsburgh private investigator, heard stories in 2005 of an armed group of white men shooting African-Americans who ventured into Algiers Point. Balogh videotaped a homemade sign in the neighborhood that said "We Shoot Looters."And then, there was this interview with Paul Gleeson, an Irishman who lived in Algiers Point.Interviewer: "Did you have any problems with looters?"Gleeson: "Not any more."Interviewer: "Not any more? But you did?"Gleeson: "They're all dead."Interviewer: "What happened?"Gleeson: "We shot them."Interviewer: "How many did you shoot?"Gleeson: "Thirty-eight."Interviewer: "Thirty-eight people?"Gleeson said he didn't know how many of those 38 people died.Gleeson: "We tried to shoot to put them down. We didn't try to shoot to kill. We killed a number of them."Interviewer: "How many did you kill, roughly?"Gleeson: "Who cares? I don't (expletive) know. Who cares? What does it (expletive) matter?"Thompson: "I had heard about Paul Gleeson before, but to see him now on videotape is really compelling and really interesting."Paul Gleeson's ex-wife, who was with him at the time of Hurricane Katrina, tells Team 4 she doubts that Gleeson shot anybody here in Algiers Point. But Cathy Carmack doesn't doubt it.Cathy Carmack, Gleeson's neighbor: "Yes, I do, I do, I do think that he would be capable of killing somebody. Yes. Especially if he was drunk. Definitely."Carmack lives across the street from the home Gleeson and his wife owned during Katrina. She says Gleeson was involved in a group of armed men who targeted African-Americans entering Algiers Point.Carmack: "They told me to keep my (expletive) mouth shut and I'd be afraid. I mean, I don't want them coming after me."We played Paul Gleeson's videotaped statement for Donnell Herrington to watch. He didn't recognize Gleeson, but our videotape of Gleeson's ex-wife, Nicky, was familiar to him, he said. And so was the story she told about a black man approaching Cathy Carmack's house. The man had been shot.Nicole Gleeson in 2005: "He ran into the house and I caught him in the hallway and I had to push him out of the house because you don't get shot for nothing."Herrington, watching tape: "This is my first time actually seeing this."Herrington told me he's all but certain the wounded man in Nicky Gleeson's story was him, though he says he did not enter the house, but rather stopped at the porch to ask for help.Cathy Carmack remembers the event this way.Carmack: "I was sleeping and some tall, dark guy came in and he was bleeding. And I could hear Nikki telling him, 'No, no, you can't stay here, you've got to get out,' and he says, 'Ma'am, I've been shot.' She says, 'Yeah, but you can't stay here, you've got to get out.'"Donnell Herrington has made a full recovery physically, but he says he remains traumatized by being shot and then turned away when he asked for help.Herrington: "I just couldn't understand this lady watching me suffer from a gunshot wound. I mean, I could have collapsed right in front of her. I could have collapsed in front of this lady and died."Donnell Herrington's case is now part of a federal investigation into possible civil rights violations, and so now is the videotape shot by those Pittsburgh private investigators. They say they told law enforcement officials -- both federal and local -- about the videotape of Gleeson back in 2005, but they say none asked to see the tape until Team 4 discovered it recently and started asking questions. (Related Story: Team 4 Uncovers New Evidence In Post-Katrina Murder Mystery) Copyright 2009 by ThePittsburghChannel. All rights reserved. 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