Family protests Plank Road shooting
by robert stewart
Advocate staff writer
September 07, 2012
Friends and family of a Baker man shot by a security guard in front of a Baton Rouge nightclub Aug. 26 gathered near the club Wednesday to protest against it and try to deter people from going inside.
About 15 people wore T-shirts bearing pictures of Corey A. Kaufman, 32, 802 Chipley St., Baker, with the slogan “Justice for Corey.”
They waved signs with messages, including “Stop the killings, it ends now,” at motorists who either passed by on Plank Road or rolled into the parking lot of Club Sha La.
Police have said the security guard acted in self-defense when he shot Kaufman outside the club at 8190 Plank Road.
The security guard, who works for a private company, helped other guards bring Kaufman to his car after Kaufman began arguing with them, police have said.
Once inside his car, Kaufman retrieved a gun and pointed it at the security guard, police have said.
The security guard fired in response, striking Kaufman in the chest, killing him, police have said.
No one was arrested.
District Attorney Hillar Moore III late Wednesday said his office is still gathering facts about the killing and has not made a decision whether to bring the case to a grand jury or press charges.
Family and friends of Kaufman also hosted a peace rally outside the club Saturday, said Barbara Kaufman, Corey Kaufman’s mother.
Barbara Kaufman said her son obtained his master’s in therapeutic recreation from Southern University in 2008.
He is survived by a 6-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter, she said.
“He was a good kid,” the mother said.
The family and friends who gathered outside the club Wednesday said they are trying to raise awareness about the incident because they believe Kaufman’s killing was not justifiable.
“I think an arrest needs to be made,” said Sherilyn Newton, Kaufman’s cousin.
Newton, who was with Kaufman the night of the shooting, said her cousin had been barred from the club about nine months ago after getting into an argument with a doorman about a woman.
She said Kaufman had not been to the club since that incident and was only there the night of his death to buy a meal from a food truck nearby.
Newton said Kaufman argued with one security guard when another guard walked up to him, grabbed him and told him to go to his car.
“I walked up (to the guard) and told him, ‘Don’t choke him,’ and he told me, ‘Ma’am, go to your car,’ ” Newton said.
Newton said she began walking to her car and was turned away from her cousin’s vehicle when she heard four gunshots. She said she turned around and saw Kaufman had been shot by the guard through his car’s windshield.
“I saw my cousin get killed in front of my eyes,” she said.
Newton said Kaufman owned a gun, but that it was under a car seat when he was shot.
Deon Johnson, a manager of the club who was there the night of the shooting, said Wednesday that Kaufman bumped a security guard at the door, which led to guards walking him to his car.
Kaufman kept arguing with guards while in his car and eventually pulled out his gun and cocked it, Johnson said. That’s when the guard shot Kaufman, she said.
“There was no way for us (club owners) to intervene because we were inside,” she said. “That was the security company (that acted).”