Oris Buckner III participated in but then reported on the interrogations of Black people questioned after a young white officer was killed in 1980 in Algiers.
NEW ORLEANS — Oris Buckner III, a Black former police detective and whistleblower who spoke out about police brutality in the aftermath of a white officer's 1980 shooting death in New Orleans, has died. He was 70.
Buckner participated in but then reported on the interrogations of Black people questioned after a young white officer was killed in 1980 near a predominantly African American housing project in Algiers, the city's west bank.
The ex-officer died unexpectedly last Wednesday in Houston last, his wife, Stephanie Buckner, told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate on Friday. Family members told the newspaper Buckner had died from a sepsis infection while battling leukemia and diabetes.
Buckner was the New Orleans department's second Black homicide detective and his whistleblower testimony that year cost him dearly. He spoke out about the treatment of Blacks questioned in the days after the still-unsolved shooting death of Officer Gregory Neupert.
“He was vilified by his fellow officers for violating the blue code. He and his family were subject to physical threats,” said Morris Reed, then a federal prosecutor who worked on the case. “He was stigmatized. They ostracized him. I think it worked on his psyche.”
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