Armed robbery and shootout in Tangipahoa Parish
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The year was 1973; I was a sergeant with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office and was working the 3-11 p.m. shift. I had stopped by my church for a supper they were having. While there the pastor’s child fell and hit their head on the concrete. The child was rushed to Seventh Ward Hospital for the injuries. The doctors told the family that the child needed to be taken to a New Orleans Hospital as soon as possible. I told the pastor that I would give them an escort as far as Laplace. A friend and fellow member of the church said that he would ride with me.
On the way back from Laplace, we were driving in the area around the Manchac swamp, and a call came over the police radio from dispatch stating there had been an armed robbery in Ponchatoula. The store owner had been shot and others pistol whipped during the incident.
I had been back from the FBI Academy in Virginia one week, and upon getting back I got a new patrol car. I didn’t have the top lights on it yet, so I would have to set up a roadblock. It was very dark on the swamp road. I pulled off on the shoulder of the roadway and took out a dash light and set it on top on my unit. I told my friend to stay in the car where he would be safer, and I would check the cars as they stopped. I stopped four cars and everything was okay. The fifth car that came to the roadblock stopped a long way back from me. The car then pulled up and stopped again still not getting close. At this time, I felt something was wrong and immediately switched my weapon off safety. Dispatch had stated the suspect vehicle was dark in color with several subjects inside. As this car got closer I could see a man and woman inside. I started shining my light into the car. As I got about 20 feet from the car I saw a head rise up from the back seat. The back glass was rolled up, and the subject leaned forward and started shooting at me from the driver’s side window. Someone else in the front seat then rose up and also started shooting at me. I dropped my light and fell into the highway and immediately started shooting back.
With the darkness of the night, as my bullets would hit the car it would make sparks that looked like fireworks going off. The first few rounds that hit the car caused the windows to explode and the glass to fly from the car. You could also see fire was coming from the end of my 30 caliber carbine rifle as I would fire upon the suspects. I then started to hear people screaming, and I could barely see movement in the dark. The thing that kept going through my mind was that one of the suspects was going to get behind me. I would shoot the car some 30 times with the rifle. I then went for my pistol and shot six more times into the car. I had another 12 rounds on my gun belt, and as I started to reload my weapon, the car started to drive off. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, but it was actually happening in seconds.
I could see that someone was out of the car, and I didn’t want them to get behind me. I reloaded and then saw one on the suspects lying in the roadway. I walked over to him and saw he had been shot in the chest and appeared dead. I then heard talking, and my friend, whom I had just about forgotten about, that was riding with me, was holding a girl down on the ground, she had gotten out of the car and fell onto the back of my unit, and my friend grabbed her. She had been shot in the head.
I was now able to call for help. They told LaPlace to set up a road block as the suspects were now headed their way. I also called for an ambulance to come to the scene. Before the ambulance arrived, a Louisiana State Trooper arrived but could not continue on because he was out of gas.
The store that was robbed in Ponchatoula belonged to a Hammond police officer and his wife. The Hammond officer was on duty and was coming to assist me, when his unit also ran out of gas. His wife had been shot during the robbery, but she would recover from her injuries.
The suspects drove off after their vehicle had been shot 36 times at the roadblock. The driver was shot in the left arm. Another suspect was shot in the stomach. The suspect in the back seat that first opened fire on me was shot in the face and killed instantly. I had one bullet hole in my right boot and no other injuries. Before the suspects got into LaPlace, they pulled into a construction site where there was a night watchman.
I would learn years later from Deputy Ken Webre of the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office what had taken place in St. John Parish that night.
Wayne Norwood is a lieutenant with the St. John thhe Baptist Sheriff’s Department and owner and operator of the Louisiana Treasures Museum.
Part II will be published on Nov. 3.