Four New Orleans police officers are facing the death penalty after being accused of shooting down two unarmed people in the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation.

Indicted were Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, officer Anthony Villavaso and former officer Robert Faulcon.

Prosecutors haven't announced whether they would seek the most serious punishment for the indicted men, but the fact that the death penalty is even an option in the case makes this one of the most serious cases of alleged police misconduct in recent years.

The police are charged with shooting at six unarmed people (pictured above is Sherrel Johnson, mother of James Brisette, who was also killed on the bridge) who were walking across the city's Danziger Bridge in search of food. A teen was killed and four others were wounded.

According to court filings, the officers fired on two unarmed brothers who were walking to check on relatives' property.

A disabled 40-year-old man was shot in the back and killed, and an officer is accused of kicking the dead man, Ronald Madison, before he died.

The officers are also charged with falsifying witness statements and writing false reports to make the shootings appear to be justified.

Of all the horrors of the Hurricane Katrina story -- the deaths of residents, the government inaction and the destruction of whole neighborhoods -- the most lasting legacy of storm might be the collapse of the New Orleans police department.

Five former police officers have pleaded guilty to helping cover up the shootings on the bridge.

New Orleans police have long suffered a reputation as one of the most corrupt big-city forces in the country, but the savagery of the Danziger Bridge massacre makes one wonder what was going through those officers' minds.

Let's say the reports of civil breakdown after the storm made these officers forget about their jobs, so they left their posts to go home and protect their property. While this is a serious dereliction of duty, that would be understandable.

Dozens of New Orleans police officers were fired or suspended for exactly that.

But shooting unarmed people who posed no threat simply makes no sense.

One officer losing his mind in the Hurricane Katrina chaos is one thing, but four officers losing it is unacceptable. All of them thought murder was the right thing to do, and all of them worked on a story to cover their tracks.

Did they think the world was coming to an end? Were they murderers in blue uniforms all along?

It's only a matter of time before we get an interview with one or more of the officers, and I can't wait.

I'd really like to know what was going through their minds.