Man dies in robbery attempt
A man standing in his Geronimo Street driveway late Friday was shot in the face during an attempted robbery and later died, Baton Rouge police said Saturday.
C.J. Grisby Jr., 46, was shot around midnight at 3749 Geronimo St., police Cpl. L’Jean Mc-Kneely said in a news release.
Grisby later died at a hospital, McKneely said.
Police know little about Grisby’s attacker, McKneely said.
No other details were released Saturday about the shooting, which McKneely said appears to be a random act of violence.
Grisby’s mother, Alma Thomas, sat on the porch of her son’s home Saturday afternoon as her friend, Jerry Owens, comforted her as she cried.
Thomas, 62, sobbed as she questioned why someone would kill her child.
“It was cold-blooded,” she said. “It wasn’t necessary.”
Thomas said her son had been living at his Geronimo Street home “for a long time.”
Thomas lives on Madison Avenue, but she said she wanted to spend the day at her son’s home while grieving his death.
Thomas said she was not at her son’s home Friday night when he was killed and knows little about what happened. However, she said that from what she has heard, she believes it was an armed robbery.
Thomas said Grisby was the kind of person who would give others anything they needed.
She said Grisby leaves behind four children — two boys and two girls.
“He was a good person, and he loved his momma,” she said. “He loved his children.”
Grisby was a graduate of Broadmoor High School, where he played football, Thomas said.
He was working as an 18-wheeler driver, she said.
“He’d get off work, he’d come home, he’d cook, he’d clean,” she said.
Owens, 64, said he had met Grisby only a few times. But from his handful of encounters, Owens thought Grisby was a good-hearted person.
“He was always in a high-spirited mood,” he said.
Grisby’s death is the second homicide Baton Rouge police investigated in a little more than 24 hours.
Christopher Fountain, 29, was shot Thursday night in the 2300 block of Georgia Street along with two other men, police have said.
Fountain died Friday at a hospital, while the other two victims remained under treatment for their wounds in a hospital, police have said.
No arrests have been made in the case. Anyone with information about Grisby’s death is asked to contact the Baton Rouge Police Department at (225) 389-4869 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (225) 344-STOP.