NEW ORLEANS — Almost four years ago, state troopers punched, kicked and tased a man during a traffic stop in Northern Louisiana. He died on the way to the hospital.
At first, state police blamed Ronald Greene's death on a car crash. Two years later, the AP got ahold of bodycam video that showed what really happened.
In the aftermath, multiple officers were charged, and the Department of Justice has also opened a sweeping civil rights probe into Louisiana State Police.
Mona Hardin, his mother, is still waiting for justice.
“When I did see what happen to Tyre, I saw my son. I am glad that the Nichols family is not going to go through what we’ve yet to see,” Hardin said.
Ronald Greene was on a rural road outside of Monroe where he was beaten, tased, and dragged on the ground as officers taunted him. Body and dash cam video shows Greene offering no resistance as he voices his increasing fear, pleading, “I’m your brother. I’m scared! I’m scared!”
The officers then said he died as a result of his car crashing at the end of the high-speed chase.
He died in May of 2019, but it wasn’t till December last year that five law enforcement officers were indicted on state charges by a grand jury in Union Parish.
“It wasn’t till three and a half years that we had any kind of answers or indictments and still no accountability, they’re weak indictments and we’re angry,” Ms. Hardin said.
His family is still waiting for answers.
“My heart is crying right now, it makes me sick to my stomach because we shouldn’t be here today. What they did was senseless, what they did was inhumane and heartless,” his sister Alana Wilson said.
Monday night Dillard University held a vigil to honor Tyre Nichols and Ronald Greene.
“Questions are arising still in terms of police and where that sense of protection is coming from. So tonight we are honoring Tyre Nichols and Ronald Greene,” Dr. Ashraf Esmail, Criminal Justice Program Coordinator and Associate Professor/Director, Center for Racial Justice said.
During a round table, which included Mona and Alana, and the former state trooper who acted as the whistleblower in this case, Esmail said “just to die in that way is really hard to take in the heart people could be just going home, and die for no apparent reason.”
A moment of silence for Ronald Greene. His sister said he was an uncle, a brother and a son.
“He’s your brother, he is your friend, he was a great Uncle to my son, he was the best brother anyone could ever ask for, he was a man of God. He was someone that you, not the color of your skin. He loved everyone and I know that God used him as a vessel to make change in this horrible state.”