Officer Melvin Williams was working overtime that morning in the NOPD’s 1st District, though he was assigned to the 6th District in Central City. Colleagues regard him as an aggressive cop who has long worked the front lines in the city’s fight against crime. He is known for his street savvy and network of snitches.
In the neighborhoods, Williams is also well-known. Young men talk of him in almost mythic terms, recalling cat-and-mouse chases with the cop they call “Flat-Top,” a nickname derived from his tight buzz-cut.
That morning, Williams was training a cop just out of the academy, Matthew Dean Moore. Moore had joined the force months earlier after a minor-league hockey career with the now-defunct New Orleans Brass. On the ice, the Canadian native was known as a bruiser, an enforcer, prized more for his fists than his puck-handling skills.
The six-paragraph police report Moore and Williams later filed states the pair was on “routine patrol” in an area known for “high street-level drug trafficking, prostitution and where drug users frequent to purchase illegal contraband.”
See the full article from “NOLA.com”
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