Moore III said two Baton Rouge police officers are “lucky to be alive” after they were a suspect opened fire after a vehicle chase during a report of damaged property.
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Though wounded, the officers were able to return fire and struck the suspect, police said.
The shooter died at the scene, and his wife was taken to the hospital, the release says, and is suffering from critical injuries, police spokesman Sgt. Don A. Coppola said.
“Everything is still preliminary, and we’re still working the scene”, Dabadie said. The suspect was apparently also injured. A bullet grazed the head of one officer; the other officer was hit in the stomach but protected by his bulletproof vest.
Both officers were shot and rushed to the hospital.
The shooter is now on probation for a charge of cruelty to a juvenile that occurred in 2014, Moore said.
Chambers said Smith has history of mental illness and had attempted suicide previously. He said his office will conduct an independent investigation, in addition to the Baton Rouge Police Department’s probe, as is standard procedure with officer-involved shootings. He fired at the two officers, striking both of them.
“There is evidence that points in that direction as a possibility”, DA Hillar Moore said about the suspect’s reasoning for pulling out a gun on officers. The suspect was also shot and was undergoing surgery at an area hospital.
Police say a suspect shot at them with a rifle; Chambers says she didn’t know Smith had a gun.
He said one officer was white and the other, black.
Gina Chambers of Baton Rouge told News Two that Smith, the son of her godmother, was hospitalized in Shreveport past year after a suicide attempt. Sources say the suspect was on a tirade, tearing apart a vehicle in the driveway and got into a violent fight with the mom’s boyfriend. At least one officer was wearing a body camera.
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Police shootings have drawn wide notice in recent months. Dozens of evidence markers were on the ground at the house where the chase ended, indicating possible bullet casings. This case differs from those that have provoked outcries nationwide because Smith was armed. “I didn’t hear nothing but sirens, gunshots and tires squealing”.
