Hurricane Katrina: Federal Cops Assist Local Cops
Jim Kouri, CPP
September 07, 2005
While assisting local law enforcement in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Response Team have arrested and charged a New Orleans man with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Wesley L. Bailey was arrested Monday by a four-member scout team conducting surveillance in the Algiers section of New Orleans. He is to be arraigned on the charges in Baton Rouge.
The ATF Special Response Team (SRT), conducting surveillance in an area where citizens complained of nightly shooting, witnessed gunfire coming from an apartment window as a rescue helicopter flew over the neighborhood. As the team responded to the location, they witnessed two individuals leave the building and overheard them talking about shooting at the helicopter. When approached, the two ran back into the building.
The SRT then surrounded the building and called on the occupants to come out, which they eventually did. Through an investigative interview, it was determined that Bailey was a convicted felon, and in possession of two firearms, a .22-caliber revolver and a .32-caliber revolver, as well as a box of 9mm ammunition. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms or ammunition.
ATF deployed two of its four SRTs to Louisiana to work with the New Orleans Police Department and the US Attorney's Office to address any gun violence or other violent crime in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The team is a highly trained tactical unit deployed during high-risk enforcement operations.
Besides the ATF, other law enforcement agencies participating in public order operations in New Orleans and other gulf coast locations are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Border Patrol, US Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Agency special operations units and others. Police officers from departments throughout the country are also in -- or heading to -- New Orleans and Biloxi. Over 300 commanders and officers from the New York Police Department volunteered to assist their brother officers in New Orleans. In addition, the NYPD sent 40 police cruisers and emergency unit vehicles to help NOPD officers.
K-9s Chip in During Disaster
As the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina enters its second week, search and rescue canines trained by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (NDSDF) continue to be a vital resource in the search and rescue operations and insure that no victim is left behind.
Canines assigned to the FEMA California Task Forces are being moved from Texas to locations along the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, LA, Biloxi, MS and Gulfport, MS. Along with their handlers, they will search for victims of the most destructive natural disaster in American history. Their most important task is to insure that no one alive remains within the wreckage as search and recovery crews begin the work of recovering the dead as well as restoring order.
NDSDF provided more canine search teams than any other organization in nation to the terrorist attacks on September 11th -- this country's worst man-made disaster and provided the same reassurance -- that no one was left behind. Coincidentally, this current search and rescue effort takes place during a time when most reflect upon that tragedy. Many of the search and rescue teams deployed to the Gulf Coast were on scene at 9/11.
Wesley L. Bailey was arrested Monday by a four-member scout team conducting surveillance in the Algiers section of New Orleans. He is to be arraigned on the charges in Baton Rouge.
The ATF Special Response Team (SRT), conducting surveillance in an area where citizens complained of nightly shooting, witnessed gunfire coming from an apartment window as a rescue helicopter flew over the neighborhood. As the team responded to the location, they witnessed two individuals leave the building and overheard them talking about shooting at the helicopter. When approached, the two ran back into the building.
The SRT then surrounded the building and called on the occupants to come out, which they eventually did. Through an investigative interview, it was determined that Bailey was a convicted felon, and in possession of two firearms, a .22-caliber revolver and a .32-caliber revolver, as well as a box of 9mm ammunition. Federal law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms or ammunition.
ATF deployed two of its four SRTs to Louisiana to work with the New Orleans Police Department and the US Attorney's Office to address any gun violence or other violent crime in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The team is a highly trained tactical unit deployed during high-risk enforcement operations.
Besides the ATF, other law enforcement agencies participating in public order operations in New Orleans and other gulf coast locations are the Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Border Patrol, US Secret Service, Drug Enforcement Agency special operations units and others. Police officers from departments throughout the country are also in -- or heading to -- New Orleans and Biloxi. Over 300 commanders and officers from the New York Police Department volunteered to assist their brother officers in New Orleans. In addition, the NYPD sent 40 police cruisers and emergency unit vehicles to help NOPD officers.
K-9s Chip in During Disaster
As the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina enters its second week, search and rescue canines trained by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (NDSDF) continue to be a vital resource in the search and rescue operations and insure that no victim is left behind.
Canines assigned to the FEMA California Task Forces are being moved from Texas to locations along the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, LA, Biloxi, MS and Gulfport, MS. Along with their handlers, they will search for victims of the most destructive natural disaster in American history. Their most important task is to insure that no one alive remains within the wreckage as search and recovery crews begin the work of recovering the dead as well as restoring order.
NDSDF provided more canine search teams than any other organization in nation to the terrorist attacks on September 11th -- this country's worst man-made disaster and provided the same reassurance -- that no one was left behind. Coincidentally, this current search and rescue effort takes place during a time when most reflect upon that tragedy. Many of the search and rescue teams deployed to the Gulf Coast were on scene at 9/11.
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