On the afternoon of March 7, 2012, 20-year-old Wendell James Allen was shot and killed inside his family’s New Orleans home during a police drug raid. Allen, a Black male, was resting upstairs and went downstairs after hearing the front door being breached and people screaming. Unarmed and wearing only jeans and sneakers, he was met in the stairwell by Officer Joshua Colclough, who fired one shot that struck Allen in the chest and killed him instantly.

Police later recovered about 4.5 ounces of marijuana in the house; one of Allen’s siblings was charged with simple possession, while Wendell Allen was never charged or linked to the drugs. The shooting led to a manslaughter indictment of Officer Colclough; he pleaded guilty and received a four-year prison sentence. Separately, the city settled a wrongful death civil suit for $250,000, and an Independent Police Monitor report found no evidence officers announced themselves before forcing entry into a home that contained children.

Did anyone in the neighborhood or family know details about how the raid was planned or executed that could shed light on what happened that day?