Louisiana sheriff's deputy shot and killed during street stop
HARVEY, La. -- A pedestrian walking down a busy commercial strip of a New Orleans suburb in the middle of the afternoon shot a sheriff's deputy multiple times, killing him, after being stopped by the officer Wednesday, an official said.
Deputy David F. Michel Jr., 51, was pronounced dead after being rushed to University Medical Center in New Orleans, according to Col. John Fortunato, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's spokesman
Fortunato said a suspect was in custody and was being treated at the same hospital for minor injuries. He said the suspect is believed to have been hurt in a struggle with Michel prior to the shooting. The suspect's name was not released.
"He fled after shooting the officer several times," Fortunato said, CBS affiliate WWL reported. Police flooded a nearby neighborhood, searching for the suspect by helicopter and combing the area with dogs.
Witnesses told investigators the suspect pulled a gun from his waistband during the struggle.
Fortunato described Michel as a member of a street crimes unit.
"The normal operational tour of duty for these guys who work in street crimes is to drive around certain neighborhoods that we know are high-crime areas and make pedestrian stops, and make vehicle stops as well," Fortunato said.
"At this time, we don't have the details about what prompted this stop," Fortunato said.
Fortunato said Sheriff Newell Normand was out of town but planned an immediate return and scheduled a 10 p.m. news conference on the shooting.
The shooting happened around 12:20 p.m. on Manhattan Boulevard near its intersection with Lapalco Boulevard, both heavily traveled thoroughfares in the area known as the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans.
It was the year's second shooting of a Jefferson officer.
Another member of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office was shot and wounded in January during a drug raid on a house in the Lower 9th Ward section of New Orleans.
Stephen Arnold was shot five times as he and others were trying to serve a warrant as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration raid on a house. The alleged shooter, Jarvis Hardy, has been indicted on eight counts, including attempted murder of a federal officer.