New information has emerged in the Louisiana officer involved shooting that killed Dejuan Guillory, 27, from Mamou. The details came from an interview with the attorney representing DeQuince Brown, who witnessed the shooting and was arrested afterwards for attempted murder of the police officer who was involved. The attorney, Joe Long, spoke to his client over the weekend and revealed details that Brown divulged about the shooting in an interview with Pin Point News.
Early police reports about the shooting, just outside of the tiny town of Mamou, gave few details. KATC had this to say about the shooting just hours after it happened:
“Louisiana State Police say Dejuan Guillory was shot by an Evangeline Parish Sheriff deputy around 4:30 this morning on Chad Lane in Mamou.
Troopers say the deputy was responding to an attempted burglary when he came upon Guillory.
“An altercation occurred in which time Mr. Guillory was shot and pronounced dead at the scene,” said Master Trooper Daniel “Scott” Moreau. “The deputy received injuries as well and was transported to a local hospital where he remains in stable condition.”
Investigators with Louisiana State Police have arrested Dequince E. Brown, 21 of Church Point. Brown allegedly was with Guillory during the incident. She was booked with attempted first-degree murder of a police officer into the Evangeline Parish jail.”
Rumors quickly began to swirl in the small town about the shooting and just what had occurred. Family members assert that Guillory and Brown were riding a four-wheeler outside of town hunting for frogs, a popular activity in the area then they came upon an Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Deputy. Family members also claim that Guillory was shot in the back after he had surrendered to the deputy and was lying face down on the ground.
DeQuince Brown’s Mug Shot
Attorney Joe Long was finally able to speak to his client, DeQuince Brown, who was moved from the Evangeline Parish Jail to an undisclosed location sometime after the shooting. Long said that Brown was shaken by the incident but was able to explain more about what she witnessed when Guillory was shot.
According to Long, Brown says the two were out “frogging” on a four-wheeler when they were pulled over by the deputy on a gravel road. The deputy became upset because neither could produce identification and began pointing his finger in Guillory’s face, lecturing him. That’s when Brown claims that Guillory pushed the deputy. A fight began and Guillory hit the officer at least twice. Guillory eventually walked away from the deputy and back towards the ATV. The deputy approached the two again with his gun drawn and ordered them both to lay on the ground on their stomachs. The two complied and Guillory put his hands behind his back. Brown says that’s when the deputy shot Guillory, in the back, as he lay prone on the ground. She says she jumped on the deputy’s back to stop him from shooting again but the deputy fired another three rounds while she was choking and biting him. She never saw Guillory get up after the shots and an ambulance later left the scene empty.
Check out the full interview here:
This was not Guillory’s first encounter with law enforcement and local media sources were quick to release information about a charge he faced last year. According to the Advertiser:
“Guillory was charged with attempted murder, aggravated criminal damage to property over $150,000, felony theft $100,000, criminal damage to property over $800 and criminal damage to property $400, according to media reports.
But in December, Guillory plead guilty to a single charge, an amended charge of simple criminal damage to property between $500 and $50,000, according to the Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court Office.
Ortego dismissed all of the other charges. He sentenced Guillory to 10 years in jail, but suspended five years. Upon his release from jail, Guillory was to be placed on five years of active supervised probation.”
But the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Department has been under fire this past year as well. Last year, Sheriff Eddie Soileau was forced to borrow $1 million through the sale of bonds just to make his payroll for the year. EPSD was left unable to pay a full staff of employees after the sheriff admitted to mismanagement and a recent theft. Soileau was forced to lay off all but a few patrol deputies. The department can now only afford to keep one deputy on patrol at any given time through out the entire parish.
It is unclear if the deputy involved in this shooting was on patrol or off duty at the time. It is also unclear if he was driving a marked patrol unit or was even on duty when the shooting happened.
The Evangeline Sheriff and the Ville Platte Police Department were also the subject of a scathing Department of Justice report last year revealed both agencies were holding witnesses in jail, without any evidence of a crime, to compel their testimony. This practice had been going on for decades.
According to an article in the Acadian Advocate:
For as long as anyone can remember, the U.S. Justice Department reported recently, anyone walking the streets could be taken into custody for questioning if detectives had the slightest hunch they knew something about a crime — or perhaps knew someone who did. They were jailed indefinitely without probable cause or charges, let alone access to a telephone or an attorney.
The Ville Platte Police Department and Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office conducted more than 900 of these unconstitutional arrests over a single three-year period, federal authorities found. Suspects, witnesses, persons of interest — and their relatives — were strip-searched and detained for days in cells without beds. At least 30 of these cases involved juveniles.
“The willingness of officers in both agencies to arrest and detain individuals who are merely possible witnesses in criminal investigations means that literally anyone in Evangeline Parish or Ville Platte could be arrested and placed ‘on hold’ at any time,” the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division wrote.
The Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Department was also involved in this altercation that occurred earlier this year after part-time Deputy Nicholas Richardson showed up to his nieces home brandishing a firearm and making threats. The deputy, who was also employed with the Mamou Police Department, was not initially arrested at the scene but after video emerged of the incident, he and his father were arrested in connection with the incident. It is unclear if he is still working for the Sheriff’s Department.
For now, State Police are slow to release details while the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. An autopsy report should settle the question of the exact bullet trajectory but that report is likely weeks away from being released.
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