Deputy Superintendent Louis Joseph Sirgo

Louis Joseph Sirgo

Deputy Superintendent Louis Sirgo, Patrolman Philip Coleman, and Patrolman Paul Persigo were shot and killed by a sniper who had shot several civilians and set fire to a local hotel.

Superintendent Sirgo was shot as he led a team of officers up a dark stairwell to try to rescue two other officers who were trapped in an elevator. The suspect was hiding in the stairwell and opened fire on the officers. The suspect, who was a member of the Black Panthers, was shot and killed by police, who used a Marine Helicopter to fly over the hotel and fire at the suspect.

The suspect was also responsible for the murders of Cadet Alfred Harrell and Sergeant Edwin Hosli, who were shot in separate incidents eight days earlier. Officer Harrell was killed instantly, and Sergeant Hosli succumbed to his wounds on March 5, 1973.

Superindentent Sirgo was a United States Army WWII Army veteran and served with the New Orleans Police Department for 21 years. He was survived by his wife and daughter.

He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, Orleans Parish, Louisiana.

The Black Panther Party was a black nationalist and Marxist revolutionary political and militant organization active in the United States between 1966 and 1982. 

Members and former members of the group were responsible for the murders of over 20 law enforcement officers and the wounding of dozens more across the nation.

Please click here to visit all the law enforcement officers who have died as a result of the Black Panther Party's violent activism.