Man dies in gunfire
Baton Rouge police investigated the broad-daylight fatal shooting of a 24-year-old man on Saturday, a spokesman said.
Raymond Louis Sowell, 3911 Shelley St., was shot as he sat in the yard outside a house on the corner of Brice and Spain Streets about 1:30 p.m., said police Cpl. L’Jean McKneely.
It was the second time in the past year that Sowell was shot on that corner, McKneely said.
After being hit with multiple bullets Saturday, Sowell ran to the backyard of the house next door, where police found his body, McKneely said. That house, which is at 334 Brice St., appeared to be vacant.
The victim’s mother, who was in tears at the scene, said she did not want to comment publicly out of fear of retaliation.
Sowell had been sitting in a green chair in the yard where he had often sat, said a friend, Byron Beggs, 31.
Police marked at least two bullet holes in the tree behind the green chair.
Beggs said he and some other friends had been hanging out with Sowell in the yard just before the shooting.
“That was wild,” Beggs said. “He didn’t tell us he was beefing with nobody. He had us sitting out here with him not knowing our lives are on the line.”
Beggs said he heard “a lot” of gunshots soon after he went inside the house.
“I was scared,” he said.
Beggs said Sowell had been known to get in fights.
“He get into it with people,” said Beggs. “I always be the one who break it up and make them shake hands. But he hard-headed.”
On Saturday afternoon, Beggs and three other men sat in the area where Sowell had just been shot.
“He going to be missed around here,” Beggs said, to which the three other men nodded in agreement.
McKneely said the police currently do not have any motives or suspects in the case.
Anyone with information on this crime is asked to contact the Violent Crimes Unit at (225) 389-4869 or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867.