BATON ROUGE, La. — The firing of a Louisiana police officer who shot at a driver running from a traffic stop has been overturned by a city civil service board.
News outlets report the Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service Board voted 3-2 Thursday to reverse Yuseff Hamadeh's termination from Baton Rouge police. Police Chief Murphy Paul says the department will appeal, so Hamadeh won't immediately return to work.
The board says Hamadeh's rights were violated in the department's internal investigation. It found he wasn't allowed to have a lawyer present during a polygraph examination.
Hamadeh shot at 21-year-old year-old Raheem Howard in August. Hamadeh initially said Howard shot at him first.
Howard was jailed, but prosecutors dropped the case. District Attorney Hillar Moore says there was no evidence to support Hamadeh's account.