NEW ORLEANS — A former New Orleans police officer accused of beating a retired schoolteacher on Bourbon Street shortly after Hurricane Katrina was found dead of a gunshot wound Sunday night in an apparent suicide.
The body of Lance Schilling, 30, was found at a home in suburban Metairie. He and former officer Robert Evangelist were accused of beating Robert Davis, 64, who had returned to New Orleans to check on his property in October 2005.
The Jefferson Parish coroner's office performed an autopsy Monday, determining Schilling died of a gunshot wound to the roof of the mouth.
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office would provide few details. Sheriff's spokesman Col. John Fortunato said department policy prohibited discussion of details of a suicide unless it happened in a public place.
The beating incident was captured on videotape by an Associated Press Television News team the night of Oct. 8, 2005.
The tape shows Davis being kneed and struck at least four times on the head by two police officers. He flailed and twisted as he was dragged to the sidewalk, where he lay bleeding.
(Story continues below)
