UPDATE: The slaying of Eric St. Julien took place during a power outage that initially started with a crash, but was expanded during the night during repair.
Two social media posts predicted the outage.
The Town of Church Point initially posted that power was out and that more outages would come later as repairs were made:
Then a few hours later a map was posted, showing when power outages would be as repairs were made that night:
The post states that "Here’s the Entergy map of tonight’s outage due to an accident Main st and Plaquemine. Estimated restoration time is 1 am."
St. Julien was shot just after midnight, according to police.
This is what the chief said about the outage:
"An accident occurred earlier prior to this incident where a vehicle and trailer hit and damaged a main pole. In order to replace the pole electricity had to be shut off for safety reasons which took out the north half of Town. The electricity was off for 3 hours about so the electricity was out due to the replacement of the pole and not a planned outage by the electric company. The reason the electricity being out was mentioned was for the fact to show cameras and street lights in that area were out, but we in no way want people to think the murder occurred because the electricity was out and caused it."
Last week, Church Point Police arrested a man in connection with the January 2025 slaying of Eric St. Julien.
Joseph Casey Wilridge Jr. was booked with second degree murder and felon in possession of a firearm in the shooting death of St. Julien.
St. Julien was shot to death on January 28 on N. Kelley Street in Church Point.
"Wilridge is a convicted felon and has a very extensive criminal history on several past violent offenses such as Attempted Second Degree Murder," police say, adding that he was on probation at the time of the shooting.
The investigation is ongoing and more arrests are expected, police say.
