Photo courtesy of Pixabay/Diego Fabian Parra Pabon.
A Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office deputy was shot Wednesday during an exchange of gunfire with a suspect in Abbeville, Louisiana.
According to a Louisiana State Police press release, an unidentified deputy was attempting to serve an “order of protective custody” to an individual at his home in the area of the 1300 block of Greene Avenue early in the afternoon. LSP spokesperson Officer Thomas Gossen said when the deputy knocked on the front door, accompanied by two Abbeville Police Department officers, they heard the sound of a gun getting loaded.
The deputy and officers went to move back, and the unidentified male came out of the front door and opened fire on them with a .30-06 rifle. As they took cover at a patrol car, the shooter continued to fire, and one of the rounds pierced through the bumper of the vehicle and hit the deputy.
According to Gossen, it appeared the bumper “slowed the velocity” of a bullet that struck the deputy on his ballistic vest. The deputy was able to return fire, striking the shooter and mortally wounding him. The shooter was pronounced dead at the scene.
The deputy was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released, Gossen said. Officials will release the name of the shooter after the man’s family is notified. Gossen added that they are able to release some of the details so early in the investigation compared with others because the entire incident was caught on dash-camera footage from one of the police vehicles, allowing investigators to verify the information quickly.
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Joshua Skovlund is a former staff writer for Coffee or Die. He covered the 75th anniversary of D-Day in France, multinational military exercises in Germany, and civil unrest during the 2020 riots in Minneapolis. Born and raised in small-town South Dakota, he grew up playing football and soccer before serving as a forward observer in the US Army. After leaving the service, he worked as a personal trainer while earning his paramedic license. After five years as in paramedicine, he transitioned to a career in multimedia journalism. Joshua is married with two children.
