The Daily Star (Hammond, La.)
COVINGTON, Louisiana (AP) -- A suspected drug smuggler was shot to death as he tried to drive a car on into oncoming traffic with one state trooper in the passenger seat and another clinging to him through the driver’s side of the car, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said.
Just before midnight Sunday, Trooper Steve Paulus, of Troop L in Covington, stopped a 2004 Chevrolet Impala in the eastbound lane of Interstate 12 for a traffic violation.
The two men in the vehicle said they were from Philadelphia, Pa., according to the sheriff’s office account.
The trooper called for backup, sheriff’s spokesman Chuck Reed said, and was completing a search of the car’s interior when one of the men jumped into the driver’s seat, cranked the engine and started driving away.
Paulus jumped into the passenger seat as the car lurched forward, while Trooper Donald Pierce tried to restrain the driver through the driver’s side window, Reed said. Pierce was thrown free of the car when the driver accelerated.
Paulus told deputies, he gave the driver repeated demands to stop, but the man wouldn’t. The trooper fired one shot from his Glock .40-caliber semi-automatic, striking the driver in the right temple.
The trooper was able to bring the car to a stop within about five feet of the westbound lanes, sheriff’s detectives said. They found and impounded 77 pounds of high-grade marijuana.
The passenger in the vehicle was booked with possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.
The driver’s name has not been released pending notification of next of kin, sheriff’s detective Jerry McDowell said. Detectives were awaiting fingerprint verification to confirm the identities of both men. Trooper Paulus has been reassigned, Reed said, until completion of both the sheriff’s office and state police internal investigations.