The Associated Press
BOSSIER CITY, La. (AP) - Bossier City police shot an 18-year-old suspect, hitting him twice, during a gunfight at a grocery store parking lot less than two blocks from police headquarters.
Gunfire struck one bystander in the arm and blew the window out of a passing van, according to police and witnesses.
Willie Ford of Bossier City was wounded in the hand and the front side of his body when he and three officers exchanged gunfire Thursday afternoon, Bossier City spokesman Mark Natale said.
A woman who was standing close to a nearby Salvation Army Thrift Store was struck in the arm by a bullet police believe was fired by Ford, Natale said. The wound was minor and the woman, whose name was not released, refused medical treatment, he said.
None of the officers on the scene - including Police Chief Mike Halphen - was wounded.
John Sturgis of Jackson, Miss., said he was driving a white Chevrolet on Benton Road when its back window was blown out during the shooting.
Sturgis said he saw a man hold a handgun sideways and fire at police. Then Sturgis heard the van window explode.
“Ooh, I’m in the wrong place,” the 47-year-old medical equipment salesman who is in town on business remembers thinking.
Halphen did not fire his gun, Natale said. The police chief also would not comment on the incident Thursday because there is an ongoing investigation, Natale said, citing departmental policy.
“Since Chief Halphen was involved in the incident, he will not comment to the media until all investigations are complete,” Natale said. The police chief “is subject to the same procedures applied to any Bossier City police officer involved in such an incident.”
The shootout happened after officers found a shooting victim, Tobias Lattier of Bossier City, about 1:30 p.m.
The 19-year-old, who was treated and released at a local hospital, described his assailant to police. Halphen was in the area when he heard the description over the radio.
The police chief saw a bicyclist matching the description in the grocery parking lot and called for him to stop. The man got off the bicycle, started walking away from Halphen then pulled a handgun and fired at the police chief, Natale said.
Several officers converged at the shopping plaza, then the man and three officers exchanged gunfire.
Ford faces three counts of attempted first-degree murder for firing at the police chief and two officers and one count of attempted second-degree murder in connection with the shooting of Lattier, Natale said. Ford has not been charged in shooting of the woman because it has not been confirmed whether he fired the bullet that hit her, Natale said.
“The three officers who discharged their weapons in this incident have been placed on paid administrative leave as a matter of course dictated by department policy,” Natale said, adding that Halphen ordered that their names not be released.