Defence, prosecution spar as McKnight slaying trial opens
GRETNA, La. — Claims of self-defence by the man who killed former NFL player Joe McKnight withered under scrutiny, a prosecutor told jurors Friday, but a defence lawyer insisted the shooter fired as McKnight approached his car, spewing obscenities and threats following a traffic confrontation in December 2016.
The conflicting claims were made in opening statements in the second-degree murder trial of Ronald Gasser, 56.
Defence lawyer Matthew Goetz said authorities in suburban New Orleans were under political pressure to make an arrest when Gasser was jailed days after the shooting. Goetz alluded to racial unrest that year in American cities, including the St. Louis area and Baton Rouge. Gasser is white; McKnight was black.
Seth Shute, an assistant District Attorney in Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish, acknowledged that Gasser was initially freed after the shooting. But Shute said Gasser was arrested after investigators talked to numerous witnesses and assembled physical evidence contradicting Gasser’s claim that McKnight, 28, had tried to lunge into his car through a passenger window after both vehicles stopped at a busy intersection.