New Orleans, February 19 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of Louisiana, a judge handed down a 10-year prison sentence to Roland Bourgeois Jr., a white man who shot three Black men in 2005 as they were trying to leave Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. 

In October, Bourgeois pleaded guilty to the hate crime --admitting he shot the men because of their race.  He fired a shotgun at three black men who were trying to evacuate the area, wounding one seriously.  Prosecutors said that he and others had discussed shooting Black people and defending the Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans from “outsiders” after the storm.  Before and after the shooting, his conversations were admittedly punctuated with racial epithets.

At the time, he reportedly told a Black neighbor: “Anything coming up this street darker than a brown paper bag is getting shot.”