Two Police Officers In Critical Condition, Another Dead Following Shooting In St. Mary Parish

CHARENTON, La. (KPEL) -- Two St. Mary Parish Sheriff's deputies are in critical condition and another police officer was shot to death after the three were apparently ambushed outside a home in this small community in St. Mary Parish.

Another person was found dead inside a home that was evidently set on fire by the shooter.

Louisiana State Police Trooper Stephen Hammons says officers were called out to the area on Flat Town Road after reports of a man walking around with a shotgun.

The first officer to arrive, a member of the Chitimacha Police Department, confronted 48-year-old Wilbert Thibodeaux, but he was shot and killed.

Thibodeax then opened fire on the two St. Mary Parish deputies as they arrived on the scene in the same car. During the exchange of gunfire, Thibodeaux was hit. Additional deputies were able to take him into custody, Hammons says.

One of the two deputies is at a hospital in Lafayette. The other is in a hospital in New Orleans. Both men are in critical but stable condition, Hammons says.

Their identities will not be released until Monday, Hammons says.

The body of 78-year-old Eddie Lyons of Charenton was found inside the home after the fire was put out, Hammons says. It's suspected Lyons was shot before the fire was set.

“Today is a difficult day for our partners in St. Mary Parish,” State Police Superintendent  Colonel Mike Edmonson says. “My thoughts and prayers are with the deputies and the officer’s families tonight."

"I know the coming days and weeks will be difficult ones for the men and women of the Chitimacha Police Department and the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office," Edmonson says. "We will assist their agencies in anyway we can during these trying times.”