/lit/ - Literature

Jeremy Mardis was killed by a police officer claiming ‘self defense’ and was released after serving only 21 months in jail. On the night of November 3, 2015, officers Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse of the Marksville Marshal's Office attempted to stop a vehicle driven by Christopher Few. He had his son Jeremy Mardis with him in the front seat. After he and his fiancée Megan Dixon had an argument at a bar that evening, they had driven away in separate vehicles. She said that she saw him pass her, followed by a marked police car with two officers. Greenhouse and Stafford allegedly fired eighteen rounds of ammunition into Few's vehicle at approximately 9:30 p.m. Few was struck twice, in the head and chest, despite having his hands in the air, according to police body-camera footage. Mardis was hit by five bullets, also struck in the head and chest. He was initially thought to have died instantly, according to the coroner for Avoyelles Parish. However, it is now known that six-year-old Mardis was alive for an additional seven minutes while lying in his father's truck.