By ROBIN SHANNON

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Investigators with the St. John Sheriff’s Department have issued a warrant for the arrest of a 17-year-old LaPlace boy in connection with a shooting outside of a LaPlace trailer home on July 17.

Maj. Mike Tregre, public information officer for the St. John Sheriff’s Office, said deputies are searching for Shaquille Matthews, 372 Pine St., LaPlace. Matthews is accused of shooting a 15-year-old male in the back with a shotgun. Also wounded in the attack was a 16-year-old boy, who received a minor injury to his finger from shotgun pellets, said Tregre.

 According to a report from the Sheriff’s Office, just before the 9:30 p.m. shooting, the two victims were behind the trailer home when the three suspects approached them with an unidentified firearm and started a fight. The suspects took an undisclosed amount of cash from the victims and ordered the victims to leave the area.

Tregre said as the victims were climbing a fence to get out of the area, shots were fired in their direction. The 16-year-old told investigators he saw the 15-year-old get shot. He then helped him into the trailer until authorities arrived. The suspects then fled the scene in an unknown direction.

(See SHOOT, page 3A)

Both victims were transported to River Parishes Hospital in LaPlace for treatment of their injuries. The 15-year-old, who was just recently released from the hospital, was treated for a gunshot wound to the middle right side of his back, while the 16-year-old was treated for a minor hand injury and released.

Tregre said Matthews, who was last seen at the scene of the shooting, was positively identified by the two victims as the shooter. Matthews is believed to be somewhere in LaPlace. Tregre said deputies are still looking for the two other suspects involved in the robbery. Anyone with information on the incident is asked to contact Det. Ricardo Colas at the St. John Sheriff’s Office at 985-625-6338.