Cops: Deputy Shot, Killed by Pedestrian He Stopped

A pedestrian walking down a busy commercial strip of a New Orleans suburb in the middle of the afternoon shot a sheriff's deputy multiple times, killing him, after being stopped by the officer Wednesday, an official said. Col. John Fortunato, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's spokesperson, announced the officer's death as police flooded a nearby neighborhood, searching for the suspect by helicopter and combing the area with dogs. The deputy, who was not identified, was pronounced dead after being rushed to a New Orleans hospital, the AP reports. The reason the pedestrian was stopped was not immediately available, and it was unclear what prompted the shooting.

Fortunato described the deputy as a member of a street crimes unit. "The normal operational tour of duty for these guys who work in street crimes is to drive around certain neighborhoods that we know are high-crime areas and make pedestrian stops and make vehicle stops as well," Fortunato said. The shooting happened on Manhattan Boulevard near its intersection with Lapalco Boulevard, both heavily traveled thoroughfares in the area known as the West Bank, across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. It was the year's second shooting of a Jefferson officer. (More police shooting stories.)