MARKSVILLE — An Avoyelles Parish jury convicted a former Marksville deputy marshal of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in a shooting at the end of a chase that left a 6-year-old boy dead and the boy's father seriously wounded. 
 
 Derrick Stafford, a 33-year-old former Marksville police officer and part-time city marshal, left the courthouse in shackles after the jury returned to the courtroom to announce their verdict by a 10-2 vote following nearly three hours of deliberation. 
 
 Stafford had been charged with counts of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the shooting, which came after 26-year-old Christopher Few led deputies on a two-mile chase through the town just after 9 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2015. Stafford and another officer, Norris Greenhouse Jr., fired a total of 18 rounds at Few's Kia Sportage, killing Jeremy Mardis, Few's 6-year-old son, who sat buckled in the front seat. 
 
 Can't see the video below? Click here. 
 
 After hearing the verdict, Stafford hugged and kissed his sobbing wife -- telling her "it'll be alright" -- and bid goodbye to his family for about 20 minutes as Avoyelles sheriff's deputies stood guard. He handed over his watch, necktie and jacket to his wife just before a Sheriff's Office captain shackled him and led him from the courtroom. 
 
 Greenhouse, whose parents sat in the courtroom for much of Friday's testimony, is also facing charges of second-degree murder and attempted second degree murder. He's scheduled to go on trial in June. 
 
 Outside the courthouse Friday night, Stafford's attorneys expressed some relief that he wouldn't be facing the mandatory life sentence that accompanies a murder conviction in Louisiana. But Christopher LaCour, one of Stafford's attorneys, decried the lack of support Stafford received from other law enforcement officers. 
 
 "I saw an officer on trial and no officers supported him at all," LaCour told reporters. "You think they'd stand up for the man and they didn't." 
 
 Both Stafford and Greenhouse were arrested just days after their barrage of gunfire at the end of the chase -- 14 rounds fired from Stafford's gun and another four rounds fired by Greenhouse -- killed Jeremy, an autistic first-grader. At the trial, prosecutors repeatedly showed clips from a body camera video of the shooting that showed Few's hands raised out of the window as the shots struck the vehicle. 
 
 Prosecutors portrayed the shooting as unnecessary and excessive, arguing that all of the officers stood a safe distance from Few's vehicle and repeatedly pointed out that all of the bullets struck the driver's side, indicating that Few's vehicle couldn't have been pointed directly at either of the officers. 
 
 Few "certainly made some bad decisions," said John Sinquefield, one of the prosecutors, during closing arguments. But Sinquefield said the vehicle pursuit shouldn't be seen as particularly dangerous and that nothing justified the gunfire, which he called "an execution." 
 
 At one point during the chase, Sinquefield noted, surveillance footage from the courthouse showed Few stopping at an intersection before making a turn and carrying on the pursuit. Experts estimated the average speed of the two-mile chase at roughly 30 miles per hour. 
 
 +3 Father of slain 6-year-old testifies Marksville officers gave no warning, fired as he had his hands up The driver in the fatal incident, 26-year-old Christopher Few, testified for over an hour Tuesday afternoon, describing the events of Nov. 3, 2015, and recounting the hail of gunfire that wounded him and killed his 6-year-old son, Jeremy Mardis. 
 
 "I wouldn't even call it a chase," Sinquefield said, "I'd call it a parade." 
 
 Few, who survived the shooting and has since found work doing sand-blasting at an Avoyelles Parish shop, watched closing arguments in a crisp purple shirt from the first bank of benches behind the prosecution table, his arm wrapped around his girlfriend, his hands stained with what appeared to be paint. He wasn't in court when the verdict was read, but Cathy Mardis, Jeremy's maternal grandmother, quietly sobbed on the far end of a bench. 
 
 Stafford's conviction came just hours after he took the stand in his own defense, telling jurors Friday morning how he never saw the boy in the passenger seat of his father's Kia and how he only opened fire in self defense. 
 
 While prosecutors said the video shows Few, the driver of the SUV, had his hands up when officers fired, Stafford said he never saw Few raise his hands before or during the shooting. But he did believe that Few — who Stafford said had already backed into Greenhouse's patrol car — had thrown his car back into reverse, looked backward and appeared like he might run over Greenhouse. 
 
 "I felt I had no choice but to save Norris. That is the only reason I fired my weapon," Stafford said, adding that he didn't know a child was in the vehicle. "Never in a million years would I have fired my weapon if I knew a child was in that car. I would have called off the pursuit myself." 
 
 On cross examination, Sinquefield, the prosecutor, handed Stafford a small stack of photos showing Jeremy's dead body. Tears began clouding the imposing former officer's eyes as he flipped through the pictures. 
 
 "Do those photos show you what a .40 caliber Glock will do to a 6-year-old boy?" Sinquefield asked. 
 
 Stafford paused for a moment. With his head slumped and hands crossed in his lap, Stafford very softly replied, "Yes." 
 
 A few minutes later, Stafford told jurors through tears that the pictures made him think of his own child. 

 A Louisiana cop has been convicted of fatally shooting a 6-year-old autistic boy after a high-speed car chase turned into a deadly shooting spree, prosecutors said Friday. 
 
 Disgraced Marksville deputy Derrick Stafford was slammed with manslaughter and attempted manslaughter charges for unleashing a hail of bullets at Christopher Few's car after a 2-mile chase on the night of Nov. 3, 2015. 
 
 What Stafford didn't know when he riddled the car with 14 bullets was that Few's autistic son, Jeremy Mardis, was inside. At least four bullets tore into the young boy, who died within minutes. Few was critically wounded in the gunfire, but survived. 
 
 Tears rolled down Stafford's cheeks as a prosecutor showed him pictures of the young victim on Friday. 
 
 Footage shows police shooting that killed 6-year-old (GRAPHIC) 
 
 Derrick Stafford walking into court on Monday. (Gerald Herbert/AP) 
 
 "Never in a million years would I have fired my weapon if I knew a child was in that car," Stafford told jurors. "I would have called off the pursuit myself." 
 
 Stafford testified that he opened fire because he feared that Few, 26, would back up and run over his former colleague, deputy Norris Greenhouse, who had stumbled to the ground just before the chaos erupted. 
 
 "I felt I had no choice but to save Norris. That is the only reason I fired my weapon," Stafford told the jury. 
 
 Jeremy Mardis died within minutes of the shooting. (Facebook) 
 
 But graphic footage from Greenhouse's body camera shows that Few had raised his hands in a universal sign of surrender before the two deputies collectively fired 18 shots at the vehicle. 
 
 Two La. sheriff’s deputies shot one day after another cop killed 
 
 Greenhouse, 25, who fired four shots at the car, is facing a separate trial later this year. 
 
 Few testified earlier this week that the deputies never gave any audible warnings before the shooting. The distressed father said he didn't learn of his son's death until he woke up from a coma six days later. 
 
 Graphic body cam footage showed that Christopher Few had raised his hands in a universal sign of surrender before the deputies opened fire. (Louisiana State Police) 
 
 Few also insisted that he had never tried to escape, but only sped off from the cops to get his son to a girlfriend's house in the event that he would be arrested. 
 
 "The whole reason there was even a chase was for his well-being," he said. 
 
 La. cops who shot Alton Sterling claim gun butt was visible 
 
 A prosecutor asked Few if he regretted not pulling over when blue police lights appeared in his rearview mirror. 
 
 Christopher Few (l.) walks with his attorney to court on Tuesday. (Michael Kunzelman/AP) 
 
 "Most definitely," Few responded. "Every day." 
 
 Mardis' shooting death wasn't the first dark stain on Stafford's law enforcement career. 
 
 He was suspended from the Marksville Police Department after getting indicted on rape charges in 2011. He was reinstated after prosecutors dropped the charges, but later became the target of a lawsuit charging he had used excessive force and neglected his duties as a police officer. 
 
 Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said his office was content with the Friday verdict. 
 
 "As we have said all along, our goal in this case was to get justice for Jeremy Mardis, his family, and the people of Louisiana," Landry said in a statement. "Today, that happened." 
 
 With News Wire Services 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing! 

 MARKSVILLE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana law enforcement officer was convicted Friday on a lesser charge of manslaughter in a shooting that killed a 6-year-old autistic boy, a gruesome encounter captured on tape by another officer's body camera. 
 
 Jurors found Derrick Stafford guilty of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter charges, multiple news outlets reported. He had faced charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder in the case. 
 
 Stafford, 33, and another deputy city marshal opened fire on a car — killing Jeremy Mardis and critically wounding his father — after a 2-mile (3-kilometer) car chase in Marksville on the night of Nov. 3, 2015. 
 
 Video from a police officer's body camera shows the father, Christopher Few, had his hands raised inside his vehicle while the two deputies collectively fired 18 shots. At least four of those bullets tore into Jeremy, who died within minutes. 
 
 Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement that his office is happy with the verdict, 
 
 "As we have said all along, our goal in this case was to get justice for Jeremy Mardis, his family, and the people of Louisiana. Today, that happened," the statement said. 
 
 Stafford's sentencing is set for next week. 
 
 The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/2oe880h ) that Stafford testified Friday that he shot at the car because he feared Few was going to back up and hit the other deputy, Norris Greenhouse Jr. 
 
 "I felt I had no choice but to save Norris. That is the only reason I fired my weapon," Stafford said. 
 
 Greenhouse, 25, faces a separate trial on murder charges later this year. 
 
 Stafford cried when a prosecutor showed him photographs of the slain first-grader. He said he didn't know the boy was in the car when he fired and didn't see his father's hands in the air. 
 
 "Never in a million years would I have fired my weapon if I knew a child was in that car. I would have called off the pursuit myself," Stafford said. 
 
 Two other officers at the scene — a third deputy city marshal and a Marksville police officer — didn't fire their weapons that night. Prosecutors said the officers weren't in any danger and shot at the car from a safe distance, with none of their bullets hitting the front or back of Few's vehicle. 
 
 Jurors heard testimony that Stafford fired 14 shots from his semi-automatic pistol. Stafford said Greenhouse stumbled and fell to the ground as he tried to back away from Few's car. 
 
 Stafford and Greenhouse are black. Few is white, and so was his son. 
 
 Defense attorneys accused investigators of rushing to judgment, arresting the officers less than a week after the shooting. One of Stafford's attorneys has questioned whether investigators would have acted more deliberately if the officers had been white. 
 
 Stafford's attorneys tried to pin the blame for the deadly confrontation on Few. They accused the 26-year-old father of leading the four officers on a dangerous, high-speed chase and ramming into Greenhouse's vehicle before the gunfire erupted. 
 
 During the trial's opening statements, defense attorney Jonathan Goins called Few "the author of that child's fate." Goins also said Few had drugs and alcohol in his system at the time of the shooting. 
 
 But prosecutors said none of the father's actions that night can justify the deadly response. Marksville Police Lt. Kenneth Parnell, whose body camera captured the shooting, testified that he didn't fire at the car because he didn't fear for his life. 
 
 Few testified on Tuesday that he never heard any warnings before two officers fired. He said he learned of his son's death when he regained consciousness at a hospital six days after the shooting, on the day of Jeremy's funeral. 
 
 A prosecutor, Matthew Derbes, asked Few if he regrets not stopping his car when he saw the blue lights from an officer's vehicle. 
 
 "Most definitely," Few said. "Every day." 
 
 But he insisted he was driving safely and wasn't trying to escape. Few said he kept driving in hopes of catching up with a girlfriend in a van ahead of him, so that she could take care of his son if he got arrested. 
 
 "The whole reason there was even a chase was for his well-being," he said. 
 
 Stafford, a Marksville police lieutenant, and Greenhouse, a former Marksville police officer, were moonlighting on the night of the shooting. 
 
 Before the shooting, Stafford and Greenhouse both had been sued over claims they had used excessive force or neglected their duties as police officers. The Marksville Police Department suspended Stafford after his indictment on rape charges in 2011, but reinstated him after prosecutors dismissed the charges.
– A Louisiana deputy marshal charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of an autistic 6-year-old boy was convicted of the lesser offense of manslaughter Friday. Derrick Stafford was one of two officers who fired 18 bullets at the car of Christopher Few after a chase in 2015, unaware that Few's son was inside, the New York Daily News reports. The boy, who was in the front seat, was hit by four bullets and killed. Few was critically injured and learned of the death of his son when he woke up from a coma six days later. Stafford testified that he hadn't seen the boy and that he fired in self-defense, fearing that Few might reverse over fellow officer Norris Greenhouse Jr., the Advocate reports. Stafford, who fired 14 shots at the vehicle, told the court he hadn't seen that Few had his hands up when he opened fire. "Never in a million years would I have fired my weapon if I knew a child was in that car," said Stafford, who became tearful when prosecutor John Sinquefield showed him photos of Jeremy's body. The prosecutor called the shooting an "execution" and said that at an average speed of 30mph, the 2-mile pursuit that preceded it was more of a "parade" than a chase. Greenhouse was also charged with murder and will go on trial in June. The AP reports that before the Marksville shooting, both officers had already been sued for using excessive force.