On April 21, 2020, Internal Affairs was asked to review a patrol incident where narcotics were not properly reported and turned into the property room. On April 17, 2020, Officer Lathan Meyers with the Shreveport Police Department placed a man in custody, took him to an unknown location in Bossier City, let him go, and disposed of the suspect’s alleged narcotics in a trash can. No criminal charges were filed against either Office Meyers or the suspect, no evidence was recovered, and no report was written. The Caddo District Attorney received Officer Meyers’ case and on May 28, 2020, the Assistant District Attorney notified Internal Affairs they would not be prosecuting Lathan Meyers criminally.

Officer Lathan Meyers was present and participated in the arrest of Wavey Austin on April 19, 2020, that resulted in his death in custody.

Meyers admitted during the investigation of the narcotics incident that he decided to take the suspect to Bossier City and leave him in a random location and then dispose of a number of Schedule I and II narcotics in a trash can in the same location. His reasoning was that Caddo Correctional Center and Shreveport City Jail were giving him “the run around” about booking the suspect, and that his Sergeant advised him it was okay to take the suspect to Bossier and not arrest him. The Sergeant claims he thought the suspect had family in Bossier, and did not advise Meyers to dispose of the narcotics. The suspect refused to give his name to officers and no identification was found in his belongings. Officer Jalisa Lafitte, present during the arrest, found mail that was addressed to the suspect along with the narcotics, but no report was ever filed identifying the individual. Meyers insisted during the investigation that he never identified the subject, yet investigators know the same individual was arrested a few days later and booked into Caddo Correctional; he was presumed a “mental patient” and was reportedly uncooperative for purposes of the IA investigation of Meyers.

The suspect is seen in the vehicle’s video footage telling officers he had a respiratory infection, that he couldn’t breathe, and requesting medical attention multiple times. He did not receive medical attention as long as he was in custody that evening. Officer Meyers did not take him to the City Jail or Caddo Correctional, as his supervisor Sergeant Hathorn told Meyers he would “be helping [Hathorn] out” because the suspect needed medical attention and an officer (presumably Meyers) would have had to stay with the suspect at the hospital overnight.

The officers are seen taking items out of the suspect’s bag in the dash cam video, discovering 10-20 multicolor pills they speculate are ecstasy or MDMA, “no more than” four to five grams of marijuana, and one to two rocks of crack cocaine. Officer Monica Davis offered to log the narcotics several times. Officers Lafitte and Timms are heard on video suggesting Meyers destroy the drugs on camera. SPD General policy 502.01 (C)(1) states:

Property that has been discovered, gathered or received in connection with departmental responsibilities will be processed in accordance with established departmental procedures. Employees shall not convert to their own use, manufacture, conceal, falsify, destroy, remove, tamper with or withhold any property or evidentiary material found in connection with an investigation or other police action except in accordance with established departmental procedures.

Officer Lafitte stated in her interview as part of this investigation that if a suspect is allegedly in possession of narcotics and they are not booked into jail, “the only other option” is to have the suspect destroy the narcotics in the presence of one or two officers. Officer Meyers told investigators he has seen other officers destroy narcotics and make reports for their actions.

Meyers took the suspect, his personal belongings, and the narcotics to a location on Benton Road in Bossier City. According to the investigative reports, Meyers did not have his recording equipment turned on while he had the suspect in custody, so presumably no video or audio footage exists of Meyers transporting the suspect out of the Highland/Shreveport area, contrary to SPD policies on recording. Investigators asked if Meyers turned off his video/audio recording because he knew disposing of the drugs was a policy violation and he affirmed that is why he turned off the recording equipment. Meyers admits in his statement that he told the suspect to “stay the **** out of Highland” as he returned the personal belongings and let him go in Bossier. The narcotics were disposed of in a trash can at the same location, but Meyers states that the suspect did not see this disposal and the location was “secluded”.

Meyers states in an April 24, 2020 interview that a few days before the narcotics disposal incident, he was involved in another incident that resulted in the death of a suspect in custody. As this arrest occurred on April 17, 2020, and Lathan Meyers was present at the arrest and in-custody death of Wavey Austin on April 19, 2020, this report indicates that he may have been present for the arrest and in-custody death of Tommie McGlothen, Jr. on April 5, 2020.

In a final interview on July 7, 2020, Officer Meyers’ attorney was present and investigators reported, “Mr. [attorney, redacted] states there are written policies and then there are practices and maybe Officer Meyers understood that this was unacceptable. He stated he didn’t know what motivated Officer Meyers to take the suspect across the river and he sees all the problems with that decision. Mr. [redacted] stated he believes this was an extraordinary circumstance and a young, inexperienced officer didn’t get good leadership and made some mistakes that he owns.” Further in the interview, Meyers’ attorney states he was “disappointed that the other officers on the scene did not let Officer Meyers know that he couldn’t do the things he did”. Meyers admits it was “a lesson well learned”.

Officer Lathan Meyers was put on paid, administrative leave on or about April 22, 2020 and remained on leave until his resignation. There is nothing in the documentation to indicate that he was on unpaid leave at any time. The investigators ruled that Meyers violated SPD Policies 306.01 on Professionalism, 404.01 on Completion of Reports, and 502.01 on Evidence/Property Operations. The investigative report makes no recommendations regarding discipline. Then-Chief Ben Raymond signed off on the notice of a Pre Disciplinary Hearing on July 20, 2020. Officer Lathan Meyers submitted his resignation to Chief Raymond on July 31, 2020. No documents were included in the Internal Affairs files for Lathan Meyers regarding disciplinary actions. SPD General Policy 305.02 on Pre-Employment Procedures states:

Lateral applicants must have no pending civil or criminal proceedings against them and/or are not currently under investigation to include Internal Affairs (or similar) investigations. Administrative actions with any board or commissions will be reviewed and may be cause for disqualification. This review shall include a lateral applicant’s history of using lethal and less-lethal force, determining whether the lateral hire has been named in a civil or criminal action and assessing the lateral hire’s use of force training records and complaint history.

According to comments from former Chief of Police Ben Raymond, if an officer resigns during an open internal investigation, the investigation is still certified but that officer would not be eligible for rehire in the department. Raymond stated that officers anticipating a pending investigation could resign or retire and no further investigations would be made due to that individual no longer being an employee; such a person could reapply for employment at the department and be eligible for rehire. The policy and these comments indicate that Lathan Meyers would not be disqualified from rehire due to this internal affairs investigation in his file.

Lathan Meyers was never placed on leave or subject to investigation concerning the in-custody death of Wavey Austin.

Files related to this internal investigation can be found here.