KATRINA'S AFTERMATH: Michigan squads lay down law in the South
Agents help round up shooters
September 9, 2005
BY TAMARA AUDI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
NEW ORLEANS -- Just after sunrise Wednesday, more than 100 New Orleans police officers and federal agents gathered quietly on the expansive outdoor entrance to Harrah's casino on the city's waterfront. Their commanders huddled around the day's mission plan, spread like a football playbook on the trunk of a black stretch limo.
At the center of the crowd, leaning over the plan and talking softly with the captain of the New Orleans Police Department SWAT team, was Roger Guthrie, a federal agent and father of three from Grosse Ile -- one of hundreds of Michigan law enforcement officials and National Guard members who streamed to the gulf coast to help restore order after Hurricane Katrina.
Before long, Guthrie -- chief of an elite Detroit-based tactical squad from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- would help lead a large raid on the Fisher projects, a notoriously violent housing development, where snipers were firing at workers trying to repair a cell-phone tower.
His men covered themselves in 80 pounds of body armor and weaponry. As they prepared to set out, Jeff Winn, the New Orleans police SWAT captain, gathered everyone and said, "If you hear footsteps on the other side of the door and they're not communicating, do what you got to do."
Everyone knew what he meant.
The agents climbed into lumbering beige light armored vehicles. By 8:30 a.m., they were on the ground at the Fisher complex, rifles up, snaking through abandoned buildings in search of the shooters. The frenzied barking of Brody and Cisco, two dogs, echoed between the buildings. Wind whished over uncut grass.
By 9 a.m., the teams had rounded up one man, now on his knees in front of an apartment building. Another, shirtless, stood surrounded by guns against a wall. Police said they discovered weapons in one of the men's apartment and arrested him. They let the other man go after determining he wasn't involved.
Not long after, the phone repair workers returned. The Michigan agents, rifles drawn, watched over them -- another small portion of the perilous city reclaimed.
Officials unite in fight
Since arriving last weekend, the ATF team from Detroit rescued 18 people from floodwaters, helped snag three snipers, helped make the first federal arrests in New Orleans and prowled the pitch-black streets at night by car and on foot.
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