More Than $9,000 Raised For Arrested 'Times-Picayune' Photographer

Less than two days after Times-Picayune photographer John McCusker was arrested following an altercation with New Orleans police, in which he asked to be shot because of financial problems, more than $9,000 has been raised for him.

Friends of The Times-Picayune, which formed last fall to help collect money for the newspaper's employees devastated by Hurricane Katrina, revealed that it had received $9,160 through its non-profit organization since Tuesday night, with the last $2,160 coming today alone.

"People started pulling together money to send in and they are donating through the Web site, knowing it can go to him," said Bridget O'Brian, a Times-Picayune reporter from 1981 to 1988, who co-founded the organization. "People are being extremely generous."

McCusker was taken into custody after allegedly hitting several parked cars and attempting to pin a police officer with his vehicle after cops noticed him driving erratically. During the incident, he reportedly asked police to shoot him, revealing later that he had been distraught because he could not afford to repair his hurricane-damaged home.

"It is just heart-breaking," O'Brian said about McCusker's situation. "We all knew him and had worked with him."

Friends of the Times-Picayune, which formed in November, has raised some $200,000 since its creation, O'Brian said. She said much of the money is being collected through the National Press Foundation, which allows donors to claim their contributions as tax-deductible gifts.

The money collected in the past has been given to 184 Times-Picayune staffers, who signed up early on to receive the donations. So far, two rounds pf payments have been made to the recipients. The first, a round of $371.64 checks, went out Dec. 15, 2005, with the second payment - offering checks of $452.48 each - distributed in March, O'Brian said.

A third round is expected before the end of the month, giving each of the 184 employees another $371 payment. While donations have been made via mail and through the group's Web site, www.friendsofthetimespicayune.com, several large grants also have come in since the beginning of the year, O'Brian said.

Those include $50,000 each from the Annenberg Foundation and the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation.

"We have proposals before several other charitable foundations at the moment, which are considering making sizable donations," O'Brian said. "But can't say who they are as yet."