Last Friday, Ronald Gasser, the man accused of killing former NFL player Joe McKnight during an alleged road rage incident in Terrytown, Louisiana, was released from police custody without being charged with a crime. And while Sheriff Newell Normand of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office didn’t rule out the possibility of Gasser being charged at the conclusion of an investigation during a subsequent press conference, many people both in the local community and across the country were outraged over the police department’s decision to set Gasser free.
That freedom was only temporary, though, as Gasser was arrested late Monday and charged with manslaughter, according to jail records obtained by The New Orleans Advocate. Normand held a press conference on Tuesday morning to address the investigation and reveal what police believe happened in the moments leading up to McKnight's killing. According to Normand, Gasser and McKnight were involved on a dispute on a bridge that continued into a New Orleans suburb. Normand said that Gasser then shot McKnight three times from inside his vehicle as McKnight stood outside his SUV. Gasser admitted to shooting McKnight when police arrived on the scene and gave them the gun he used to do it.
The New Orleans Advocate reporter Ramon Antonio Vargas first shared the news about Gasser’s reported arrest on Twitter on Tuesday morning and defined the meaning of manslaughter in the state of Louisiana:
Police have not yet revealed when Gasser will make his first appearance in court to answer to the charge filed against him.
