A former New Orleans police officer accused of beating a retired schoolteacher on Bourbon Street shortly after Hurricane Katrina was found dead of a gunshot wound Sunday night in an apparent suicide.
The body of Lance Schilling, 30, was discovered at a home in suburban Metairie. An autopsy report from the Jefferson Parish coroner’s office determined Schilling died of a gunshot wound to the roof of the mouth.
He and former officer Robert Evangelist were accused of beating Robert Davis, 64, who had returned to New Orleans to survey his hurricane-ravaged property in October 2005.
The videotape shows Davis being kneed and struck at least four times on the head by two police officers. He flailed and twisted as he was dragged to the sidewalk, where he lay bleeding.
Davis was booked on municipal charges of public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. All charges were later dropped. He has said he does not drink and that he was on Bourbon Street in search of a place to buy cigarettes when police grabbed him.
Franz Zibilich, who represented Schilling, said he was saddened by his client’s death. He believed the suspected suicide had no connection to the pending trial, which had been set for June 29.
“The truth be known, he was looking forward to having this matter tried and heard,” Zibilich said.