■ A 21-year-old fugitive is the prime suspect in the killings of five people in Louisiana, including his parents.

Parents of ‘armed and dangerous’ suspect shot dead at home

NEW ORLEANS — Authorities in Louisiana said they are searching for an “armed and dangerous” 21-yearold accused of killing his parents and three others in two separate but related shootings Saturday.

Ascension Parish Sheriff Bobby Webre said Dakota Theriot is the “prime suspect” in the deaths of Keith, 50, and Elizabeth Theriot, 50, of Gonzales, his parents.

They were shot in their trailer Saturday morning. Deputies interviewed one of the victims before both died. Webre said that information led authorities to zero in on the couple’s son as a suspect.

Dakota Theriot was being sought on first-degree murder and other charges. He was believed to be driving a stolen gray and silver 2004 Dodge Ram pickup.

The sheriff said three other shooting deaths occurred Saturday in neighboring Livingston Parish, about 70 miles west of New Orleans.

“After speaking with their detectives for quite a while, we came to realize that these two cases indeed may be related,” Webre said.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard confirmed in a statement that three people were killed in his parish and identified the victims as Billy Ernest, 43; Tanner Ernest, 17; and Summer Ernest, 20. The sheriff ’s office identified Dakota Theriot as the suspect in those killings.

Webre said the Ernests were not relatives of the suspect but appeared to know him.

Crystal DeYoung, Billy Ernest’s sister, said she believes Theriot had just started dating her niece, Summer Ernest.

“My family met him last weekend at a birthday party and didn’t get good vibes from him,” DeYoung said.

She said that she wasn’t sure how her niece and Theriot met but that she believed the relationship was relatively new.

DeYoung said she skipped the birthday party and didn’t meet Theriot herself.

DeYoung said Theriot doesn’t have a vehicle, and she’s not sure how he ended up at the Ernest home on Saturday, but after the killings, he took off in her brother’s truck.

There were also two young children in the home at the time. DeYoung said a 7-year-old took the baby out of the house and went to a neighbor’s.

Webre said Dakota had lived with his parents briefly but was asked to leave and not return.

Webre said Dakota Theriot had some run-ins with law enforcement in other parishes that he described as misdemeanor-type incidents that did not include violence, “certainly nothing of the magnitude that we’ve seen today.”

Authorities believe that Dakota Theriot is heading east.

They warned that because he’s armed and dangerous, “anybody he comes into contact with could be a target.”

Travis Spradling The Associated Press Authorities investigate at the scene of a fatal shooting Saturday in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. A suspect was at large and was being sought.