New audio interview emerges of trooper who died after Ronald Greene's deadly arrest: "That's why I struck him"
CBSN
Days before his own death, Louisiana Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth walked into a secure room deep inside state police headquarters, swore an oath and told investigators about the night he held down Black motorist Ronald Greene and repeatedly bashed him in the head with a flashlight.
Gone was the bravado from Hollingsworth's earlier boast - captured on body-camera video - that he "beat the ever-living f--" out of the man before his 2019 death along a rural roadside in northeast Louisiana.
Instead, in a two-hour interrogation, Hollingsworth meekly portrayed himself as the victim in the violent arrest, saying he feared for his life even as graphic footage played over and over of White troopers swarming Greene's car after a high-speed chase, jolting him with stun guns, punching him in the face and dragging him by his ankle shackles as he wailed, "I'm your brother! I'm scared! I'm scared!"
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.