FRANKLIN, La. - UPDATE: Detectives have determined through evidence that 34-year-old Chad Williams of Berwick was engaged in a struggle with a St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office corrections deputy at the St. Mary Parish Courthouse.
During the struggle, Williams gained control of the corrections deputy’s handgun. Williams sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The investigation remains ongoing and once complete, it will be turned over to the District Attorney’s Office for review.
We previously reported, Detectives assigned to the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations were requested by the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office to investigate an in-custody death that occurred in the St. Mary Parish Courthouse.
The incident involved a confrontation between a Corrections Deputy with the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office and an in-custody inmate transported to the courthouse for official business.
During the course of the confrontation, the inmate sustained life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced deceased by medical staff.
No deputies were injured during the incident. This is an active investigation and further information will be released when it becomes available.
According to Public Information Officer, Derek Senegal, the detainee's identity is being withheld, until his family members are notified.
"Right now, detectives will be interviewing witnesses that may have seen it or was around that area," Senegal said. "Of course, they are going to interview that actual officer too, that was involved with this."
Senegal said officials will also be reviewing any security/surveillance camera footage from the shooting, if available.
Alton Levine said he was born and raised in Franklin, but hearing the sound of gun shots today, made him nervous.
"I was doing some work on Iberia Street, and I heard some shooting and all of that," Levine said. "That was around about ten o-clock or whatever. "
Levine said he was taking care of his regular landscaping duties when the shooting happened.
"People gotta watch their surroundings and everything else," Levine said.
Troopers confirmed that the man was shot inside of a deliberation room, after a struggle with a St. Mary Parish sheriff's deputy.
The LSP investigation is now underway, with detectives trying to track down the dead man's next of kin.
All court cases were canceled for the day.
