4 dead, 3 wounded in La. shootings
LOCKPORT, La. - A nurse embroiled in a custody fight with his ex-wife attacked his former in-laws, his onetime boss at a hospital that fired him and his current wife in a rampage that spanned two parishes in Louisiana, leaving three dead before killing himself, authorities said.
LOCKPORT, La. - A nurse embroiled in a custody fight with his ex-wife attacked his former in-laws, his onetime boss at a hospital that fired him and his current wife in a rampage that spanned two parishes in Louisiana, leaving three dead before killing himself, authorities said.
All three survivors remained hospitalized Friday, two in critical condition, Brennan Matherne, a spokesman for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office, said in an e-mail.
Ben Freeman, 38, first attacked his former in-laws with a shotgun in Lafourche Parish about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans, wounding parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux and Gouaux's daughter Andrea. Both were in critical condition after surgery early Friday in New Orleans, Matherne wrote.
Gouaux's wife, Susan, was dead when deputies arrived, Matherne said earlier.
Gouaux called 911 around 6:40 p.m. Thursday from his home in Lockport, telling dispatchers he had been shot in the throat, the Courier newspaper in Houma reported. Freeman was divorced from Gouaux's daughter Jeanne, whom he married in 1997.
Jeanne Gouaux - also a nurse - had filed several protective orders against Freeman, who had pleaded guilty to harassment charges and was allowed only supervised visits with their four children.