By Richard Burgess
The Advocate
CROWLEY, La. — Three people and a police dog were killed and a police officer was wounded in a shooting here Wednesday night, authorities said.
Crowley Police Chief Jimmy Broussard said Officer Tate Thibodeaux, who was released from the hospital Thursday after treatment for a wound in the thigh, was a K-9 handler and was among six officers responding to a call about 10:30 p.m. of shots fired on Josey Street.
The suspect shot the K-9 handler after the officer approached the house with the police dog and kicked in the door, Broussard said. He said the suspect also shot and killed the dog when the officer released it.
The suspect, whom police did not identify, then came out of the house in the 400 block of Josey Street and began firing a weapon before other officers at the scene shot and killed him, Broussard said.
Inside the house, the police chief said, police found the body of woman and called State Police in to investigate the officer-involved shooting.
During their investigation, State Police went to an address in the 200 block of Oak Street to question a woman whose car the suspect had driven to the Josey Street address, Broussard said.
He said investigators arrived at the Oak Street about 6:30 a.m. to find a woman inside who was dead. He said they are still trying to determine the cause of death.
The suspect shot by police knew both women, Broussard said, but the nature of their relationship and possible motives for the shooting weren’t known.
“We are still unsure of a motive,” Broussard said. “The only thing we can say is that he knew both women.”
The police dog, “Roscoe,” was two years old and had been with the department for six months, Broussard said.
He said the officer who was wounded had a single gunshot wound to thigh and was resting at home following his release from the hospital early Thursday.
A man who witnessed the shooting on Josey Street identified one of the victims as his cousin, 41-year-old Katina Stevens.
Jonathan Keith LaFleur, who lives next door to Stevens, said he was watching the evening news with his cousin and two other friends when they heard a knock on the door.
“When she opened the door, he shot her,” LaFleur said. "... It was so many rounds. He didn’t stop.”
LaFleur said the bullet struck another man in the arm, but he has since been treated and released from the hospital.
LaFleur said he ran out of the back of the house, fearing for his life.
“I felt the fragments flying from the refrigerator,” he said.
LaFleur said he knows little about the man with the gun, only that he was interested in a relationship with his cousin.
“She wanted to move on with her life, and I guess he didn’t want her to move on without him,” LaFleur said.
He said he did not know the man’s name.
LaFleur said his cousin was well known as a neighborhood nanny, caring and feeding for children in the area after school.
They called her “Momma Tina,” he said.
“You should have seen the little kids last night holding their mamas,” he said. “The kids came and the kids were screaming, ‘Where is Mama Tina,’” he said.
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