Travis Boys had been searched twice last Saturday. He had been handcuffed. He had been seated in the back of a New Orleans Police Department SUV — separated by partition from the veteran officer behind the wheel — and on his way to jail to face charges stemming from an altercation with his wife that morning. The New Orleans Times-Picayune says the 33-year-old with a history of escaping police managed to produce a .40-caliber handgun, from which he fired a shot that claimed the life of Officer Daryle Holloway.
With Boys again in custody and a city in mourning, authorities are trying to piece together what went wrong and what – if anything – can be done to prevent a recurrence. “What you have is an unfortunate perfect storm of circumstances,” said Capt. Michael Glasser, president of the Police Association of New Orleans. “Unfortunately, there are always lessons to be learned in these things. Sometimes we can do everything right and it still ends up wrong.” The department’s well-documented staffing shortage means officers are typically faced with transporting prisoners alone. “Clearly, (Holloway) did everything he could do,” said Eric Hessler, the police group’s general counsel. “A second officer would have changed the outcome.”