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DA says insufficient evidence in alleged BRPD shootout; suspect remains in jail

6 years 3 months 5 days ago Tuesday, September 04 2018 Sep 4, 2018 September 04, 2018 11:35 AM September 04, 2018 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge District Attorney Hillar Moore says he's not yet pursuing charges against a man accused of firing at a Baton Rouge police officer last month.

The DA announced his decision Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence in the case, to not move forward with charges at this time. The suspect, 21-year-old Raheem Howard, is still in jail on warrants unrelated to the officer-involved shooting.

Howard was accused of firing shots at Officer Yuseff Hamadeh as he fled a traffic stop. BRPD said Hamadeh returned fire and chased the fleeing man, but an arrest wasn't made until later that week.

The weapon used in the alleged shootout has not been recovered.

As he was taken away for booking, Howard vehemently maintained his innocence, even offering to take a lie detector test. Hamadeh was briefly placed on paid leave as an internal investigation unfolded.

Last week Police Chief Murphy Paul announced there was no body cam or dash cam video from the stop because neither was rolling at the time. Police said they'd been reviewing audio from the rear-view camera of the police unit and video of the traffic stop shared by a witness.

Hamadeh had been allowed back at work on restricted duty over the course of the internal investigation.

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