Suspect in deaths of officer, woman shoots himself
NEW ORLEANS — The suspect in the slayings of a police officer and a woman was alive late Friday after he shot himself during an hours-long standoff on a New Orleans bridge, a Louisiana state police spokesman said.
The man identified as Sylvester Holt shot himself once in the chest while talking to negotiators, said Trooper Dustin Dwight. Holt was on a girder below and to the side of the bridge roadway when the shooting happened.
The self-inflicted gunshot wound brought an end to a chaotic day that began with the shooting death Friday morning of Westwego Officer Michael Louviere, 26, and Simone Veal, 32, of Marrero.
According to witnesses, the shooter fired at Veal, then chased her car in his vehicle to an intersection where she hit a truck waiting at a light, Jefferson Parish Sheriff ’s spokesman John Fortunato said. Louviere, whose shift ended at 6 a.m. Friday, was on his way home after work when he saw the crash and stopped to help.
The man shot Louviere in the head, then ran around the car and shot Veal as she lay on the ground, Fortunato said. Fortunato didn’t know whether she’d been hit in the earlier shooting.
Fortunato identified Holt as a person of interest and suspect in the double shooting.
As authorities searched for Holt, police shut the Mississippi River bridge from New Orleans’ east bank to its west bank, causing traffic to back up for miles, because a man later identified as Holt was threatening to jump from it.
Helicopters circled the area as news crews and photographers watched intently.
Louviere was described as a dedicated family man with a strong work ethic; he was married and had a 1-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter, Fortunato said.
According to Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch, he was a rising star probably bound for a job at a larger agency.
“We knew we wouldn’t have him for long. We just didn’t know he would be gone this soon,” Munch said.
Before his career in law enforcement, Louviere was a U.S. Marine who served in Afghanistan, Munch said. He joined the department in July 2015 and “finished first in everything” in his police academy class of roughly 20 recruits, Munch said.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said earlier Friday that dozens of officers from multiple agencies had searched for Holt. Several women had taken out protective orders against him between 2012 and November 2016, the sheriff said.
He had also been arrested in September after being accused of rape. But District Attorney Paul Connick Jr. said the rape charge was dropped after the woman told authorities she wanted to withdraw the charge. Holt was released on Jan. 7.