NEW ORLEANS (AP) ? A handcuffed prisoner in a moving police cruiser somehow managed to grab a gun, fatally shoot the officer at the wheel and escape from the vehicle, which careened into a utility pole at a busy intersection, police said Saturday.
Officer Daryle Holloway, 45, died at a hospital, police chief Michael Harrison said. Meanwhile, an intense manhunt was on for Travis Boys, 33, the suspect who had been arrested on an aggravated assault charge and was being taken to jail when he escaped.
The New Orleans Crimestoppers organization announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to Boys' arrest.
Rifle-toting police in bullet-proof vests, some with trained canines, searched several whole blocks of one neighborhood about a mile from the city's French Quarter Sunday afternoon. Local residents clustered on street corners to watch as officers also checked backyards and looked under modest homes, elevated on flood-protection piers.
"He will be caught and he will be brought to justice for the murder of Officer Holloway and for this assault on our entire community," Harrison said in a police department statement.
The shooting happened Saturday morning as Boys was handcuffed in the back seat of the vehicle. Boys managed to get his hands from behind his back to the front and obtain a weapon as well, Harrison told reporters at the scene in a video interview posted on the department's Facebook page.
New Orleans police officer killed while transporting suspect - Yahoo News