By Ken Stickney
The News Star
BASTROP, La. — Two Bastrop police officers and a suspected assailant have been confirmed killed and a rescue worker was wounded during an ongoing shootout on Bastrop’s Courthouse Square this afternoon.
At 3 p.m. at least two people wearing FBI vests were taken into custody and were being led from the scene, which centered on the Budget Inn hotel on the square.
Authorities were not available to discuss who the handcuffed people were or why they were arrested.
News Star Reporter Stacy Temple, on the scene, said a large black female wearing a white shirt and an elderly black man wearing a blue shirt, blue jeans and a backwards baseball cap were arrested by police who stormed the Budget Inn in downtown Bastrop.
Morehouse Parish Sheriff Danny McGrew said suspects involved in the shooting were believed to be staying at the Budget Inn, and may also be “persons of interest” in a double homicide in Texas, although the sheriff said that information was not certain.
Authorities on the scene were preparing for an assault on the motel shortly before 3 p.m. Traffic was diverted and nearby offices and businesses were locked or vacated.
Several agencies, including the sheriff’s offices in Morehouse and Ouachita parishes, the FBI, and police form Bastrop and Monroe were at the scene.
The identity of the slain suspect was not revealed.
The injured man, a rescue worker for Med-Life Ambulance, was said to be David Thomas. His injury is not believed to be life threatening.
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