Dash cam video shows a chase and a collision when an ATV being pursued by a deputy's vehicle slams into another deputy. Both the driver and deputy were badly injured.
Plaquemines Parish District Attorney Charles Ballay also confirmed that bail for Reginald Hamilton has been lowered from over $500,000 to $152,000, although Hamilton has remained in jail since he was released from the hospital following the May 31 crash.
Both Hamilton and Deputy Edmund Fisher suffered life-threatening injuries from the crash at the foot of the Woodland Bridge over the Intercoastal Canal. Fisher’s leg and hip were badly injured, forcing doctors to amputate one of the deputy’s legs. He was released from the hospital Tuesday as a large contingent of deputies and officers gathered in Belle Chasse to welcome him home.
Hamilton, from the Cut-Off neighborhood of Algiers, suffered a head injury but has since recovered.
Video that has been made public shows deputies in pursuit of two people riding ATVs. Some of the language is rough, with a deputy in the vehicle eventually yelling "Smoke him" during the pursuit. At some point the ATV collides with Deputy Fisher who was in the roadway, drawing an exclamation from the officer in the pursuing vehicle.
Video of the crash is also in the hands of defense attorney Ryan Thompson of Baton Rouge, who said the evidence does not appear to support the original characterization by Sheriff Jerry Turlich that Hamilton intentionally rammed the deputy.
