UPDATE: The teens who were shot last night in Port Barre were on their way to an event.
The two were back-seat passengers in a vehicle that another young man and a young woman were in, Chief Deon Boudreaux says. The four were trying to find a parking space near the event, he said.
The party was being led at the American Legion Hall, and was about to be shut down by Port Barre Police who had found the parking lot packed and the facility well over its capacity, under COVID-19 restrictions, of 50 people.
As the officers were discussing their plans to shut the party down, shots rang out about a block away, the chief said. Someone in another vehicle, passing the vehicle containing the victims, fired into the back seat, striking the 16-year-old in the back and the 17-year-old in the leg, the chief says.
The driver of the vehicle drove them both to the hospital, where the younger boy died, the chief said.
As of Sunday afternoon, Port Barre Police, with the assistance of St. Landry Parish homicide detectives, were working the scene and the case, the chief says. The vehicle that the victims were riding in will be processed as evidence, he said.
Anyone with any information about the shooting is asked to call Port Barre Police at 585-6212 or St. Landry Parish Crime Stoppers at 948-TIPS.
The shooting happened in the 200 block of Bayou Drive, shortly after midnight.
