New Orleans ? Seven police officers were indicted Thursday on murder or attempted murder charges in a pair of shootings on a bridge that left two people dead during the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The district attorney portrayed the officers as trigger happy.

“We cannot allow our police officers to shoot and kill our citizens without justification like rabid dogs,” District Attorney Eddie Jordan said.

The shootings took place under murky circumstances six days after the storm and became one of the most widely cited examples of the anarchy that descended after Katrina.

Two men were killed and four people wounded on the Danziger Bridge, which spans the Industrial Canal.

At the time, the sweltering city was still littered with corpses as rescuers tried to evacuate stranded residents and looters ransacked stores.

Police initially said the Sept. 4, 2005, shootings occurred after shots were fired at Army Corps of Engineers workers.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley called Jordan’s comments “highly unprofessional, highly prejudicial and highly undignified,” and urged the community to withhold judgment until a jury decides their guilt or innocence.

Defense attorneys said their clients are innocent.

A judge gave the officers 24 hours to surrender and said there would be no bond for the four accused of murder, which carries a possible death sentence. The officers accused of attempted murder were to be held on $100,000 bond for each count.

The grand jury issued the charges after hearing weeks of testimony.

A spokesman for Mayor Ray Nagin declined to comment on the indictments.

According to a police report, several officers responded to a radio call that two fellow officers had been hurt. When they arrived, seven people were seen running, and four began firing at police, the report said. The officers returned fire.

The victims were Ronald Madison, a 40-year-old mentally retarded man, and James Brissette, 19. The coroner said Madison was shot seven times, with five wounds in the back.