By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

HAHNVILLE – A Norco man shot his estranged wife in the head before turning the gun on himself in an attempted murder/suicide Sunday evening, according to the St. Charles Sheriff’s Office.

Both the shooter and the victim remain in critical condition in the intensive care unit at University Hospital in New Orleans, said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Capt. Pat Yoes.

Yoes said Otto Barrera Jr., 46, of 35 Good Hope St., and his estranged wife, Catherine, whose age was not known, were inside Barrera’s home when an argument took place just after 6 p.m. The couple had previously separated and the woman moved out of state, but returned to stay with her children because Barrera was going out of town. The Sheriff’s Office has no prior reports of trouble or violence between the couple, said Sheriff Greg Champagne in an email.

Yoes said the couple’s teenage daughter, who witnessed the shooting, told deputies that her father grabbed a gun and shot her mother once in the head. The daughter then ran to a neighbor’s house for help. When deputies got to the home, they called for Barrera to come out of the house. Yoes said Barrera was able to walk out of the home despite having shot himself in the face.

Yoes said Barrera will be charged with attempted murder once he leaves the hospital.