Two California Highway Patrol officers accused of killing an alligator while working in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina will be fired, the patrol said Friday.
An internal investigation found the officers failed to report the firing of their weapons, which is a serious policy violation, said Fran Clader, patrol spokeswoman.
At least one alligator was killed, she said. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is conducting a criminal investigation.
“This is an embarrassment to our department and especially to all our personnel who went to Louisiana and served honorably in helping the citizens of that state to recover from the clutches of disaster,” she said.
The agency sent 116 Northern California officers to the state for two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall Aug. 29, she said.
The two officers were with Louisiana state troopers Sept. 13 when the alligator was shot in a New Orleans-area bayou, the California patrol said.
The two officers were placed on administrative time off until they officially leave their jobs, but Clader declined to say whether they were being paid. She would not say how many alligators the officers might have shot or whether they claimed to have acted in self-defense.
It is unclear whether any Louisiana officers are being investigated. The state’s wildlife department did not return a call Friday.