By Bryn Stole and Grace Toohey
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — The man named Monday in the fatal shooting of a sheriff’s deputy at a hair salon off O’Neal Lane had been convicted of crimes in the past, including aggravated battery, and was being questioned in the rape of a 15-year-old girl at the time of the incident.
Brandon Wiley, 30, struggled with Sgt. Shawn Anderson and another East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s deputy at the Classic Cuts hair salon, 1962 O’Neal Lane, Saturday night when shots were fired that killed Anderson and injured Wiley, said Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Casey Rayborn Hicks.
Anderson, who was with the Sheriff’s Office for nearly 18 years, died later at the hospital, Hicks said.
Wiley remains in critical condition, but was booked remotely into Parish Prison on first-degree rape, resisting an officer and tattooing minors, according to Louisiana State Police Trooper First Class Bryan Lee.
The investigation into the shooting was turned over to State Police, as is protocol when a deputy is involved in a shooting, Lee said. Following the investigation, more counts could be filed against Wiley, Lee said.
State Police declined on Monday to release any details on the incident that led to Anderson’s death, including whether Wiley was armed, did the gun discharge during the struggle and who shot Wiley. Lee cited the ongoing investigation as the reason why he could not provide more information.
The second deputy was not injured and has since been placed on paid administrative leave as is policy for officers involved in shootings, Hicks said. She declined to identify him.
Wiley has a prior felony conviction in East Baton Rouge Parish and was also sentenced to four months in jail following a 2010 conviction for unlawfully tattooing a minor, according to 19th Judicial District Court records online.
Wiley was arrested in 2004 on two counts of attempted second-degree murder after he was accused of shooting two men during a fight. Those charges were reduced to aggravated battery in a plea agreement in 2005, and he was sentenced to 13 months in prison, according to court records.
He was also sentenced to two years in prison in 2011 for “inciting a felony” after he was arrested on a count of indecent behavior with a juvenile, the records state. Wiley was accused of lifting up the shirt of a 10-year-old girl and inappropriately touching her after her mother, a friend of Wiley’s, asked him to take the girl to Wal-Mart to get snacks, according to court records. The charge was reduced from indecent behavior with a juvenile to inciting a felony in a plea agreement so the victim would not have to testify at a trial, according to notes written on a bill of information.
On April 28, 2010, Wiley was indicted by a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Louisiana for being a felon in possession of a firearm, said Corey R. Amundson, acting U.S. Attorney, on Monday. Wiley was detained pending trial at the request of prosecutors, Amundson said. He was later convicted and sentenced to 37 months in federal prison, followed by 2 years of supervised release. Wiley was released from the federal Bureau of Prisons on Aug. 8, 2014, and completed his term of supervised release in 2016, Amundson said.
In an interview with a photographer for The Advocate following the August flood, Wiley identified himself as an employee of the Classic Cuts salon.
At the time, he was applying for Federal Emergency Management Agency benefits, saying he had lost his possessions in the flood.
He has a company registered with the Secretary of State’s Office called The Preferred Look LLC, which lists Classic Cuts address as its business location and advertises tattoo work under that business name on Facebook.
Wiley is not licensed or registered with the Department of Health to perform commercial body art, according to the department’s spokesman Bob Johannessen.
His Facebook page also promotes several late-night tattoo parties at the salon, at least one of which Wiley wrote in a December post would run from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The owner of Classic Cuts, Lilnetta Roach, said Monday that all her employees had their own keys to the strip mall location and it wasn’t uncommon for some of her workers to be at the location until late into the night because of how long some hair appointments can take.
However, Roach said she did not know of any tattooing going on in her store. She said Wiley had worked as a barber and stylist at her shop since the summer and had always been professional; showing up on time, being respectful to customers and wearing his uniform. She said she was surprised by the accusations against Wiley.
“These allegations, I’m not saying they’re not true, I just didn’t encounter them at the shop at all,” Roach said.
Roach said Wiley has a young daughter.
“He was a very good father figure,” Roach said.
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