Breaux Bridge police officer shoots, kills girl

State Police investigating incident

BREAUX BRIDGE — A Breaux Bridge police officer shot and killed a 17-year-old girl who had driven into a police car Sunday night, according to State Police.

Police were responding to a disturbance on Landry Street about 7:40 p.m. when a 2005 Toyota Corolla driven by Darnesha Harris, 17, of Breaux Bridge, struck the front of a police car, State Police said.

Harris then put the car in reverse and struck a parked car on the road before driving forward again through a ditch, striking a bystander and another parked car, State Police said.

The bystander suffered moderate injuries and was treated and released from a local hospital, according to State Police.

It is unclear at this point whether Harris’ car was still moving when the officer fired, State Police spokesman Trooper Stephen Hammons said.

“Right now, we are still putting together the timeline of events,” he said.

The officer fired more than one shot, but investigators were still unsure of the exact number Monday afternoon, Hammons said.

He said investigators also have not determined whether Harris was involved in the initial disturbance that police were responding to Sunday evening.

“That’s something we are looking into in our investigation,” Hammons said.

State Police did not identify the officer involved in the shooting.

Breaux Bridge Police Chief P.J. Hebert and Breaux Bridge Mayor Jack Delhomme did not return messages left at their offices Monday for comment on the incident or whether the officer has been placed on leave pending the investigation.

Breaux Bridge City Councilman Howard Alexander said he has heard “all kinds of stories” about what happened Sunday night but said he would withhold comment until he sees the State Police report on the shooting.

Alexander, who has law enforcement experience, said he does not expect State Police to “sugar coat” the officer-involved shooting.

“I’m asking the community to be calm and wait for the report,” he said.

State Police will forward their findings to the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office for review, which is standard practice in police shootings, Hammons said.

Comments

1) Comment by jlsch12 - 12/12/2012

Presently living in Breaux Bridge and formally from Baton Rouge I feel people need a few things. 1. BBPD is not anymore unprofessional as the Baton Rouge police department. Having rental property and formally living inside Baton Rouge in a high crime area I see how poorly trained the BRPD is. The so called superior Baton Rouge police department does not run any better and at times are worse due to the police force is not from the community! Breaux Bridge is just a smaller department and yes they have a mix of the community representing their officers which is white and minorities. Atleast the BBPD is made of people from the community of Breaux Bridge and St Martin Parish. 2. Breaux Bridge is alot safer community than living in Baton Rouge. If you ever have a chance to visit the community the people are alot more friendly than people from Baton Rouge. Lets get to the facts of the story. 1. Area across the tracks where this incident happened is the worst part of Breaux Bridge similar to North Baton Rouge or the Prescott area of town. 2. This young lady who died was not in school due to she could not get along with the students from Breaux Bridge. She was going to start her next symester of school at North Side High in Lafayette. If you can enroll in North Side High which is in Lafayette Parish I suspect that means you do not live in Breaux Bridge. Maybe she should have stayed in Lafayette if she has a proven past of not getting along with people from Breaux Bridge. Clearly Shows she probably was not from Breaux Bridge and also shows who is the problem in this incident. 3. BBPD was called out to a disturbance on that street that had something to do with this young lady. If she had nothing to hide why was she trying to leave the area when BBPD was responding to this disturbance. Seems like the cause of the problem is the young lady. 4. She hit a BBPD Police Car responding to the incident, backed up, drove through a ditch, hit a bystander, and another car. Again, she refused to stop and seems like the cause of this problem is this young lady. 5. Then people wonder why she was shot? Maybe due to she had an attitude that she was going to cause harm to the people of Breaux Bridge, LA. Maybe the officer feared for his life or the life of others? That is what we pay the officers from Breaux Bridge to do protect and serve our community! I don't think BBPD had it out for her due to they have alot of other things to do besides go to the other side of the tracks to shoot a teenager who cannot get along with the people from the community. Now after the incident is over the black community is saying poor young lady the bad Racist Breaux Bridge Police took your life before you took someone elses life!!!!!!!!!

2) Comment by Costanza - 04/12/2012

Darnesha should have thought twice about ramming a police car... Will await the final report, but it sounds like assault with a deadly weapon to me.

3) Comment by ebbette - 04/12/2012

How about shooting out tires? How about anything other than deadly force? This is a sad story but I do agree with Attila - blacks are killing blacks on such much more than a regular basis and when Bill Cosby spoke about THAT, he got slammed. This young girl was acting in such a crazy manner, she had to be stopped in some way, even if deadly force could have been avoided. As Bill said - The black community should be more worried about their young people killing "their own" young people. Vast numbers of a generation of young people are dying over such stupid reasons. Where is the outcry? It should be LOUDLY heard. There are no winners here and having lost my first born when he was 16 to murder by a 34 year old man in an alleged hunting accident (he was found guilty of felony murder), my thoughts and prayers are with her family because, after 20 years, my pain hasn't lessened and my heart hurts for theirs because they have just begun a never ending journey. It doesn't matter to them if the girl was doing wrong or not - they will still hurt forever.

4) Comment by Attila - 04/12/2012

It makes no difference if the shooting was justified or not. If the officer is absolved the black community will still protest, and possibly riot. Why? Because it was a white cop who killed a black person. They will find all sorts of things that cop could/should have done rather than shoot the girl, but he didn't do any of them because the driver was black...I find it paradoxical that black people shoot, cut, beat, rob, and kill each other on a more than regular basis, but hardly anyone complains...let a white cop kill someone bent on killing them and all hell breaks loose...go figure.

5) Comment by Michael Gary Scott - 04/12/2012

Sounds like the policeman did his job, which is unusual for a small town like this. Usually it is write a ticket so the mayor and chief have more money and move on.

6) Comment by Duckyluve - 04/12/2012

Good shot

7) Comment by tradewinns - 03/12/2012

regardless of race or gender, if they were trying to evade the police and was fired on to protect the officers OR THE PUBLIC, the shooting is justified. nuff said, move on.

8) Comment by 8point6 - 03/12/2012

That should have been "may she rest in peace".

9) Comment by 8point6 - 03/12/2012

May he/she rest in peace.

10) Comment by 8point6 - 03/12/2012

"unclear, still unclear, not determined," “I’m asking the community to be calm and wait for the report,” he said." Look for riots/protests, if the officer is "white". If the officer is Cajun- American, then, he belongs to a minority.

11) Comment by CitizensArrest - 03/12/2012

Nevermind, I see the State Police are involved...so I retract my previous comment (if only this 1892 era website would let me).

12) Comment by CitizensArrest - 03/12/2012

13) Comment by CitizensArrest - 03/12/2012

There should be in car video of every second of this altercation. Let's see it. My money is on bad kill here.