Saturday, March 4, 1995, 1:55 AM New Orleans

Antoinette Frank stood in the cramped kitchen of the Kim Anh restaurant, a 9mm pistol clutched in her hand. Kneeling on the dirty floor at Franks feet were 17-year-old Cuong Vu and his 24-year-old sister, Ha.

Cuong was an altar boy at St. Brigid Catholic Church. He played high school football and wanted to be a priest. Ha was considering becoming a nun. Both worked long hours at their parents restaurant.

Frank fired nine bullets into them.

Ha Vu died instantly. When detectives found her, she was still on her knees, her forehead resting on the floor.

Cuong took longer to die. Frank shot him repeatedly in the chest and back, but his young athletes heart continued to beat. Frank heard him trying to talk, so she shot him again. This time firing two bullets into Cuongs head.

Frank and her partner-in-crime, an 18-year-old thug named Rogers LaCaze, ransacked the Bullard Avenue restaurant until they found what they were looking for  money.

Frank and LaCaze bolted through the dining room. On their way to the front door they passed Ronnie Williams. Williams was a 25-year-old New Orleans police officer assigned to the 7^th District. His shift had ended at 11 p.m. and he had come straight to the restaurant to work a security detail. Williams needed the extra money. Ten days earlier his wife had given birth to the couples second son, Patrick.

Still in his police uniform, Officer Ronnie Williams was face down behind the bar in a pool of blood. Hed been shot twice in the head and once in the back.

LaCaze had Ronnie Williamss gun and his wallet.

Outside, Frank and LaCaze piled into a battered 1977 Ford Torino. As the car screeched out of the parking lot, a sun-yellowed cardboard sign fluttered on the dashboard in front of the steering wheel. Printed on either end of the foot-wide rectangular placard was the star and crescent symbol of the New Orleans Police Department. In the center of the sign, between the symbols, were the words NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER ON DUTY.

The sign and the car belonged to Officer Antoinette Frank, a New Orleans cop who worked out of the 7^th District. She, too, had just gotten off at 11 p.m. Frank was on the same platoon, and worked the same shift, as Williams. The two officers had worked together every day for more than a year.