Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. — A drunk driving suspect shot a Louisiana state trooper early Wednesday, grazing the trooper’s head, and was preparing to shoot the downed trooper again when he was wounded by West Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s deputies, state police said.
Col. Mike Edmonson, commander of state police, said the suspect was standing over the trooper, revolver in hand, when the deputies arrived. One deputy fired at the suspect through the windshield of his own patrol car. Another got out of the car and fired. It was unclear how many times the suspect was hit. State police said he was hospitalized in serious condition.
The trooper was hospitalized in stable condition.
“He’s going to be OK,” Edmonson said. “I told him he’s got a hard head.”
The identities of all involved were not immediately released.
Edmonson and Lt. Doug Cain, a state police spokesman, said the trooper pulled the driver over around 2:30 a.m. The trooper, believing the man to be intoxicated, was about to place him under arrest. The man fought with the trooper, wrestling with him before breaking away, running to his car and getting a revolver.
The trooper immediately called for backup. At some point the suspect fired. The trooper was hit in the head and knocked to the ground.
“When the two West Baton Rouge Parish deputies drove up, he was standing over the trooper,” Edmonson said.
Cain said state police believe the man was about to fire again at the prone trooper when deputies arrived.
“There’s no doubt in our minds these deputies saved his life,” Edmonson said.