Ronald Greene

Ronald Greene, 49, died on May 10, 2019, following a high-speed chase and arrest by Louisiana State Police troopers outside Monroe, Louisiana. Authorities initially told his family he died from injuries sustained when his car crashed at the end of the chase. Body camera video, suppressed for two years until an Associated Press investigation obtained and published it in 2021, instead showed troopers stunning Greene with Tasers, punching him, and dragging him by his ankle shackles face-down on the ground while he pleaded, "I'm scared! I'm your brother!" Five officers were eventually indicted in 2022 on charges ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance. By 2024, prosecutors had dropped the most serious charges against every defendant; the lead trooper avoided trial entirely by pleading no contest to a single misdemeanor battery charge in exchange for probation. The Department of Justice separately declined to bring federal charges. No one has ever been convicted of a felony in Greene's death.

Monroe, LA · Union County

• 2019: Case opens — victim reported missing or found.
• Documented milestones (renewed investigation, media coverage, family advocacy) to be added as sourced.
• Present: case remains unresolved. No named suspect has been convicted.

• The high-speed chase, the arrest, and Greene's death, per body camera video an Associated Press investigation obtained and published in 2021, two years after Louisiana State Police initially attributed his death to the car crash alone.
• The video showed troopers using stun guns on Greene, punching him, and dragging him face-down by his ankle shackles while he begged for mercy; a state police force instructor who reviewed the footage described the troopers' conduct as "torture and murder," per multiple news reports.
• State police records showed a coroner's report listed the cause of death as a motor vehicle accident, a state crash report omitted any mention of troopers using force, and 462 days passed before state police even opened an internal investigation.
• Five Louisiana officers, including four state troopers and one Union Parish sheriff's deputy, were indicted in December 2022 on charges ranging from negligent homicide to malfeasance in office.
• By September 2024, prosecutors had dismissed the negligent homicide charge against the trooper most directly implicated in Greene's death, Kory York, leaving only lesser malfeasance counts against two remaining defendants.
• In October 2024, York avoided trial entirely by pleading no contest to a single misdemeanor battery charge, receiving one year of probation and no jail time, in exchange for agreeing to testify against the one officer still facing charges; Greene's mother said the family had refused to sign the plea deal and were not consulted on its final terms.
• The U.S. Department of Justice, after opening a broader civil rights investigation into Louisiana State Police, told Greene's family in 2024 that it would not bring federal criminal charges in his death specifically.
• One indicted trooper, Chris Hollingsworth, died in a single-vehicle crash in September 2020, hours after learning he would be fired for his role in Greene's death.

• The precise physical cause of Greene's death was never conclusively established by prosecutors despite years of investigation, which CBS News reported was itself cited as a weakness that discouraged more serious charges.
• Why state police and the coroner's office initially attributed Greene's death solely to the car crash, despite injuries an emergency room doctor reportedly questioned at the time, has never been fully accounted for by any single official investigation.
• The full extent of what Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards knew about the case and when, which a state legislative inquiry examined, was not conclusively resolved in public reporting.

• CNN — “Louisiana prosecutors drop most serious charge in deadly arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene”
• CBS News — “Louisiana prosecutors drop most serious charge in fatal arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene”
• CNN — “Ronald Greene: Louisiana trooper avoids jail time in deadly arrest of Black motorist”
• Project Cold Case
• Murder Accountability Project
• NamUs