New Orleans LA October 6 2019

A state probation and parole agent investigating possible shoplifters while working a private security detail at the Saks Fifth Avenue store on Canal Street shot a man outside the store late Friday afternoon, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

Paramedics took the unidentified man to University Medical Center with a bullet wound to the right shoulder, NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said.

Ferguson added that two females who were being escorted out of the store moments before the shooting had been detained for questioning.

The melee began about 5:15 p.m. at the Saks Fifth Avenue store in the Canal Place shopping center in the 300 block of Canal.

The probation and parole agent, along with an Orleans Levee District police officer also working a security detail at Saks, were escorting the suspected shoplifters out of the store when the two women fled to a blue Chevrolet sedan apparently waiting nearby on Canal Street.

There was a confrontation, and the probation agent ended up firing at the vehicle. At least three bullets struck the windshield, and the driver was hit in the shoulder.

The levee district officer did not fire, and neither the females nor anyone else was hit, Ferguson said.

An NOPD team which specializes in investigating use-of-force incidents involving law enforcement officers is leading the probe into the shooting, Ferguson said.

State probation and parole agents do not work for the NOPD; they are overseen by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections.

A spokesman for that department directed questions about Friday’s incident to Saks Fifth Avenue, saying the agent was working for the store at the time. Attempts to contact Saks officials weren’t immediately successful.

During a news briefing Friday evening, Ferguson was flanked by NOPD Public Integrity Bureau Chief Arlinda Westbrook and Jonathan Aronie, who is in charge of monitoring the New Orleans police force’s progress in implementing a 7-year-old reform agreement with the federal government.

Investigators cordoned off the Chevrolet sedan, which was left in the street just outside the Canal Place shopping center.

Bullet holes were clearly visible in its windshield. On the ground near the driver’s door were at least a half-dozen evidence cones. Those cones were near bloody clothes and, presumably, the probation and parole agent’s spent bullet casings.

The lakebound side of Canal was taped off as police combed the area surrounding the car. It appeared that there were still shoppers at Canal Place as night approached.

Among those near the scene was Lawrence Romaldo, who said he and his brother heard officers telling the driver of the sedan to get out of the car several times.

In a conversation with The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate through a social media site, Romaldo said, “When we heard the yelling we turned around and saw that one officer had his weapon drawn.”

Romaldo added that it appeared the driver was trying to move the car.

A man who also caught a glimpse of the scene that Romaldo described said the probation agent and the driver of the Chevy had “a 10-minute standoff,” with the agent standing in front of the vehicle and barking orders for the driver to get out.

Eventually, the witness said, another officer arrived, opened the passenger door and handcuffed a woman who had gotten into the vehicle. But she screamed, “I didn’t do anything wrong,” and hopped back into the car, said the man, who asked not to be named.

The man said he then saw the driver inch his car up, and the agent standing in front of the vehicle fired. The driver then opened his door and fell out.

A reader named Brandon Johnson submitted a photo late Friday that showed the driver on the ground while the probation and parole agent pointed a gun at him. On the other side of the car, an officer can be seen speaking into a radio while holding onto a handcuffed woman.

“It was kind of scary,” the witness said. “Everyone was kind of shocked because we were expecting the driver to come out and not get shot.”

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