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Man accused of shooting La. officer captured

The man is accused of shooting a female officer during a traffic stop

Nahshon Ishmael Brooks-1.jpg

Nahshon Ishmael Brooks

Photo / Abbeville Police Department

Claire Taylor
The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.

ABBEVILLE, La. —The Abbeville man accused in the non-fatal shooting of an Abbeville Police officer Wednesday night has been captured.

Nahshon Ishmael Brooks, 29, was apprehended in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana State Police Troop I spokesman Trooper Thomas Gossen said in a release. He said Brooks was captured around 10 p.m. and will be brought to the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center before being transferred to the Vermilion Parish Jail.

Brooks was accused of shooting a female police officer following a traffic stop on Alley Street. The suspect reportedly fled on foot toward North Gertrude Street and shot at the police officer as she pursued him.

Several agencies were involved in the arrest, including the U.S. Marshal’s Service, Louisiana State Police, Lafayette Sheriff’s Office, Lafayette Police Department, Abbeville Police Department, Abbeville City Marshal’s Office and the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office, Gossen said.

The officer, who has not been named by police, was reportedly shot in the shoulder and airlifted to a hospital. She was in stable condition Wednesday night.

Brooks is wanted on charges of attempted first-degree murder, carrying a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm in a gun-free zone, state police said in a news release.

Anyone with information about the location of Brooks is asked to call Louisiana State Police at 337-262-5880.

Brooks has been arrested before for shooting someone in Abbeville. He was arrested in 2017 for an attempted second-degree murder the prior year, according to news reports and court records.

News reports from February 2016 indicate police were searching for an Abbeville man by the same name, 25 years old at the time, for allegedly shooting and critically injuring a man on St. Peter Street. He was extradited from North Carolina in January 2017 after he was arrested in Brunswick County, North Carolina, in June 2016 while officers served a warrant for the arrest of someone else at a home, according to a news report at the time.

Brooks was charged with attempted second-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm in a gun-free zone.

Vermilion Parish court records show in 2018 he pleaded guilty to the amended charge of aggravated battery. He was sentenced to six years at hard labor, all but one year suspended, and received credit for time served. He also was placed on two years probation.

North Carolina records show he also was indicted in Brunswick County, North Carolina, in April 2012 for attempted breaking and entering a motor vehicle and attempted first-degree burglary of a home in February 2012. He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of attempted breaking and entering of a motor vehicle and was sentenced to 45 days, with credit for 45 days he spent in jail prior to sentencing.

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©2019 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.

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