Porsche Hit And Run: Killed Police Officer’s Memorial Will Be Friday [Video]

A Porsche hit and run brought an outpouring of grief and anger in the wake of the death of New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officer Rodney Thomas. The officer was actually on his way home when he got involved in an accident on Interstate 10 shortly before 1 AM on Sunday morning.

According to police, when 52-year-old Thomas got out of the car to direct traffic around the accident in a reflective vest, a white Porsche then hit and ran over the officer before taking off to leave him to die by the side of the road.

The video up top shows the discovery of the white 2011 Porsche Panamera in a Mid-City New Orleans body shop, where The Advocate reported that a surveillance video captured images of the suspects cleaning blood off the vehicle to try to destroy the evidence.

Reporter Danny Monteverde also reported that only four hours before the incident, the same car with a different driver had been stopped by a different NOPD officer outside the Essence Festival for carelessly driving over some traffic cones. That officer let the driver off with a warning.

Three men have now been arrested for the Porsche hit and run killing of Rodney Thomas — Justin McKey, Kenneth Halley, and Bill Cager. According to The New Orleans Times-Picayune, McKey has confessed to being the driver.

However, all three men participated in the cover-up, which NOPD chief Ronal Serpas has called a “web of deception” that quickly broke down in the city-wide search for the officer’s killer. Cager reportedly owns the body shop where the failed clean-up attempt took place.

McKey has been booked on charges of manslaughter and hit and run, while the other two men have been charged on obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact to manslaughter.

A memorial service will be held for the slain officer on Friday.

Here’s another WDSU video where the reporter talks to one of the last people to see Rodney Thomas alive, a driver who noticed the NOPD officer trying to direct traffic away from the accident scene:

Moments afterward, Rodney Thomas was dying as a result of the Porsche hit and run.