A bipartisan special committee tasked with looking into the 2019 death of Black motorist Ronald Greene in Northeast Louisiana at the hands of State Police held its first meeting today.
“I’m not interested in any sort of witch hunt for any sort of person, my only motivation in this committee is to get to the truth, wherever that may be or wherever that may lead us,” Chairman Tanner Magee told the committee in the opening minutes.
The committee was fairly brief, but during the meeting, lawmakers did lay out a laundry list of LSP officials they would like to have testify including former Colonel Kevin Reeves, who presided over the department during Greene’s death, and current Colonel Lamar Davis.
Two other lawmakers on the committee, Representative Tony Bacala, and Representative Debbie Villio, indicated interest in finding out more about how much the Governor or his staff knew about Greene’s death.
Other points of interest include an incident where the second in command at LSP wiped his cell phone in early 2020. A WBRZ report from a month ago detailed how Lt. Colonel Doug Cain wiped his phone “around February 2020” just as the FBI was receiving the first case files on the incident.
“I’m most curious about what the circumstances were surrounding the wiping of the phones from my standpoint,” said Magee.
Video from that May 2019 incident shows State Police pulling over Ronald Greene after a car chase. Greene was dragged out of his vehicle and severely beat by officers as he yelled out for help and apologized.
