Jury deliberations resume Thursday in Katrina case

NEW ORLEANS – Jurors are returning for a second day of deliberations in the trial of five current or former police officers charged in deadly shootings on a New Orleans bridge after Hurricane Katrina.

The jury deliberated for several hours Wednesday without reaching a verdict. Deliberations are scheduled to resume Thursday.

Prosecutors contend the officers shot unarmed people without justification and without warning, killing two and wounding four others on Sept. 5, 2005, and then embarked on a cover-up involving made-up witnesses, falsified reports and a planted gun.

Defense attorneys countered that the officers were returning fire on the city's Danziger Bridge and reasonably believed their lives were in danger as they rushed to respond to a distress call less than a week after Katrina.