New Orleans cop says he burned body because he’d ‘seen enough rot’

The post-Katrina shooting death of Henry Glover at the hands of New Orleans police officer David Warren has become something of a byword for charges of corruption within the New Orleans Police Department. Warren and four of his NOPD colleagues are currently on trial in New Orleans for their role in Glover's death and its cover-up.

After Warren -- who testified that he believed Glover was armed and posed a threat to him -- had joined with another officer to gun the man down, NOPD officer Greg McRae set Glover's corpse on fire in a car. Today in court, McRae -- who is also on trial for Glover's shooting death -- insisted that he didn't destroy Glover's remains as part of any cover-up. Instead, he insisted that he was acting out of post-Katrina stress and exhaustion.

"I had seen enough bodies," McRae testified. "I had seen enough rot."

This was all, mind you, after a good Samaritan had driven Glover's bullet-ridden body to the police station where McRae was on duty. After the drop-off of the man's remains, McRae testified, he got in the car, drove it deep into a wooded area near the Mississippi River levee, and set it ablaze with the engine still running.

"I lit one flare and threw it into the vehicle," he said.