Louisiana: Two Sheriff’s Deputies Dead, Two Others Wounded In Shootouts; Five People in Custody
August 16th, 20127 Arrested in Probe of Louisiana Shootings that Left 2 Deputies Dead, 2 Wounded
Via: AP / Washington Post:
A man accused of making threatening comments about law officers in Nebraska was one of seven people arrested in connection with the shootings of four Louisiana sheriff’s deputies, including two who were killed, state police said Friday.
The two other deputies were recovering Friday from serious gunshot wounds after the Thursday morning shootings.
Motives behind the shootings and exactly how they unfolded have not been released. The seven were arrested in connection with the attempted murder of the first deputy shot, Michael Scott Boyington. Charges have not yet been filed in connection with the two deputies who were killed or the second wounded deputy.
“We don’t know precisely what happened yet,” Ronnie Jones, an assistant to the state police superintendent, said at a news conference. “We’re still putting pieces together.
The superintendent, Col. Mike Edmonson, said the case is complex, involving two different crime scenes, multiple weapons and numerous witnesses. He said evidence and interviews so far place five of those arrested at the scene where Boyington was shot — the entrance of a parking lot used by contract workers on a job at a nearby oil refinery. Boyington was working off-duty on a security detail at the lot.
Shortly thereafter, more deputies were shot at a nearby trailer park where a car involved in the first shooting was spotted. There, St. John the Baptist Parish deputies Brandon Nielsen and Jeremy Triche were killed.
Brian Lyn Smith, 24, was charged with attempted first-degree murder.
Terry Smith, 44; Derrick Smith, 22; Kyle David Joekel, 28; and Teniecha Bright 21, face charges of principal to attempted first-degree murder. Terry Smith is the father of Brian and Derrick Smith, police said.
Arrested as accessories after the fact were 37-year-old Chanel Skains and 23-year-old Britney Keith. Authorities listed all as being from LaPlace, about 25 miles west of New Orleans.
Joekel and Brian Smith are hospitalized with gunshot wounds and will be jailed once they are out of the hospital. The others were jailed with bonds ranging from $350,000 to $750,000.
Trooper Melissa Matey, a state police spokeswoman, said “principal” charges indicate some sort of active participation in a crime, while accessory charges usually involve some aid to the suspect or an effort to hinder an investigation.
Neither Edmonson nor Sheriff Mike Tregre would discuss the criminal histories or possible motives of any of the suspects.
However, details on some suspects’ past were beginning to emerge.
The Gage County, Neb., Sheriff’s Office website listed Joekel among its most wanted fugitives, saying he is accused of making “terroristic threats” to patrons of a Nebraska bar and law enforcement officials.
The sheriff’s office confirmed on the website that Joekel has been arrested in Louisiana but said it would release no other details, referring calls to Louisiana authorities. The same website also said Joekel is wanted in Kansas for felony flight to avoid arrest in connection with the Nebraska threats. The site said Joekel fled when Marshall County Sheriff’s Office deputies tried to stop the vehicle he was driving.
In DeSoto Parish in northern Louisiana, Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle said authorities were working to confirm whether some of the suspects arrested in the Thursday shootings had been among a group of people under surveillance for suspicious activity at an RV park in his area. DeSoto deputies had started watching the RV park after three men and two women were seen getting in and out of vehicles with assault weapons.
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St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre News Conference
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Via: AP:
Two sheriff’s deputies in Louisiana were shot to death and two others were injured in an early morning shootout west of New Orleans, authorities said Thursday.
The sheriff in St. John the Baptist Parish said five people are in custody.
A tearful Sheriff Michael Tregre said the incident started when a gunman opened fire for unknown reasons on a deputy working an off-duty traffic detail along a highway that connects U.S. Highway 61 with the busy industrial corridor along the Mississippi River. That deputy was wounded.
Tregre said someone called deputies with a description of a car fleeing the scene, and officers tracked it to a nearby trailer park.
When officers found the car, they handcuffed a suspect outside a trailer, then knocked on its door. Tregre said someone with a dog answered.
“Another person exited that trailer with an assault weapon and ambushed my two officers,” Tregre said. Two deputies were killed and a third was wounded.
Two suspects were wounded in the shootout before officers subdued them, Tregre said.
The dead deputies were identified as Brandon Nielsen, 34, and Jeremy Triche, 27. The wounded officers were Jason Triche, 30, and Michael Boyington, 33. They were being treated at area hospitals but the extent of their injuries was not known. The Triches are not believed to be related.
The suspects were not immediately identified.
