Busy Night; Lafayette Man Shot & Another Arrested for a Shooting

The Lafayette Police Department responded to two different shooting incidents July 4th evening according to Lafayette Police Corporal Bridgette Dugas.

She tells KPEL in the first shooting incident, very little information is known because the victim refused to talk to law enforcement about the circumstances surrounding his shooting.

He does have a non-life-threatening injury.

In the second incident, as the pictures above show, the Lafayette Police Department was called out to the Grand Theatre to respond to a report of shots fired.

Corporal Dugas says in this incident, police arrested 24-year-old Torian Leblanc on several charges after a situation in the parking lot of the business.

The man was arrested on the following charges:

• Violation of a Protective Order
• Two Counts of Aggravated Criminal Damage to Property
• Aggravated Assault

Police say Leblanc was seen shooting a gun in the parking lot.

The pictures above were taken by Suzanne Sawner. She spoke to me about last night's incident, and the first thing she had to say is how scary the night was.'

Sawner and her boyfriend stepped outside of the bar they were patronizing to smoke a cigarette, when she heard was she thought was fireworks. Her boyfriend told her as more sounds were heard that they were shots fired and to get inside the bar. She says she and her boyfriend ran inside to alert everyone that shots were heard. She says the doors were locked, and her boyfriend told everyone to get away from the windows.

When they hear the police presence, they emerged to see four to five patrol cars on the scene searching the property. She says they first heard shots between 11:30 and 11:50. She says, just like anyone else, it's traumatizing to see something like this happen. Thankfully, no one was injured.

Sawner says,

I have a 7-year-old daughter, and my boyfriend has an 11-year-old son. I can't even imagine if any parents had dropped their kids off at the theater that night as far as what was going through their minds if they saw it on the news. It's like you can't go anywhere anymore. It's not like I was physically affected, but I'm emotionally traumatized. I'm very relieved that no one was shot. More heart just goes out to the those people involved.

She also says that last thing she or her boyfriend want to do, or anyone for that matter, is to hide in fear, but it does make her worry now about the world. She says especially when it's a holiday. She adds that this is just one more thing that will make her even more cautious of her surroundings.