On the morning of January 28, 2008, 24-year-old New Orleans Police Officer Nicola Diane Cotton was on solo patrol in the Central City neighborhood when she was dispatched to the 2000 block of Earhart Boulevard shortly after 9:30 a.m. There she encountered 44-year-old Bernel P. Johnson, who had been reported, incorrectly, as a suspect in a rape. Officer Cotton, eight weeks pregnant and described as slender and 5 feet 5 inches, engaged Johnson, who was about 5 feet 8 inches and 200 pounds, in a struggle that reportedly lasted seven minutes and was captured on a store surveillance camera.

During the altercation Johnson reportedly choked her, struck her with her expandable baton, and gained control of her 40 caliber Glock service weapon. Officer Cotton radioed for help but was shot; responding officers found Johnson still holding her weapon. She was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Johnson was arrested at the scene and booked on first-degree murder charges. Reports say he had been diagnosed as mentally ill and dangerous and briefly committed to the state mental health system weeks before the shooting; later court proceedings found him mentally incompetent to stand trial and he was committed to a state forensic hospital.

Are there eyewitnesses, neighbors, or anyone who worked in that block of Earhart Boulevard on January 28 who can add details about the encounter or the moments leading up to it?