( 4UMF NEWS ) Shootout In New Orleans Leaves Two Deputies Dead:
Two sheriff’s deputies in Louisiana were shot to death and two others were injured in an early morning shootout west of New Orleans, authorities said Thursday.
Five people – both male and female – are in custody, and two of them are hospitalized, authorities said.
They said both wounded deputies and both wounded suspects are expected to survive.
Police would not identify the suspects, say when they might do so, or give any details about the number of weapons used. No charges had been filed against them as of late Thursday afternoon.
“I had two officers ambushed – I even want to say assassinated,” St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Michael Tregre said at an afternoon news conference.
Earlier, Tregre said tearfully that the incident started about 5:30 a.m., when a gunman opened fire for unknown reasons on a deputy working an off-duty job along a highway that connects U.S. Highway 61 with the busy industrial corridor along the Mississippi River. That deputy was wounded.
Tregre said someone called deputies with a description of a car fleeing the scene, and officers tracked it to a nearby mobile home park.
When officers found the car, they handcuffed a suspect outside a mobile home, then knocked on its door. Tregre said someone with a dog answered.
“Another person exited that trailer with an assault weapon and ambushed my two officers,” Tregre said. Two deputies were killed and a third was wounded.
Two suspects were wounded in the shootout before officers subdued them, Tregre said.
The slain deputies were identified as Brandon Nielsen, 34, and Jeremy Triche, 27. The wounded officers are Jason Triche, 30, and Michael Boyington, 33, identified as the first one shot. They were being treated at area hospitals but the extent of their injuries was not known.
