Woman hurls racist slurs at Jefferson Parish workers, aims car at deputy, is shot dead
Jefferson County LA Sept 4 2021 A crew of Jefferson Parish workers was repairing a Metairie water main broken by Hurricane Ida when a woman pulled up in her car Wednesday, called them “f—-ng n—-rs” and demanded that they be arrested.
The workers then flagged down sheriff’s deputies and reported her harassment, at which point the woman twice struck one officer with her car before another deputy shot her to death, said Sheriff Joe Lopinto and an eyewitness who recorded a series of videos of the beginning of the woman’s meltdown.
Lopinto gave few details of the confrontation during a brief meeting with news reporters, but he suggested the woman might have been in mental distress. “There didn’t seem to be a whole lot right with her,” he said.
Later, Jefferson Parish Coroner Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich said the middle-aged woman — whose name wasn’t immediately released — had previously gotten numerous orders of protective custody, which result in mental health commitments. In Louisiana, those orders are issued by coroners, who also handle death examinations.
Many across Jefferson feel desperate after Category 4 Ida knocked out power and drinking water to most of the parish on Sunday, and amid the 18-months-and-counting coronavirus pandemic. But Lopinto said there was no excuse to lose control in the way the workers and deputies described.
“People need to have some patience,” he said.
The woman’s deadly encounter with deputies began about 3:30 p.m. when she drove up to the workers in the 6400 block of Park Manor Drive. They were repairing a main to deliver water to homes and businesses. A man recorded the woman yelling to the crew members that they were “f—-ng n—-rs” who needed to go back to their countries, according to video recordings shown to The Times-Picayune.
The workers flagged down deputies, who spoke to the woman while she was still in her car, Lopinto said. A video showed her pointing at the workers, again calling them racist names and demanding that the deputies arrest them.
One of the deputies speaking with the woman was wearing street clothes, while the other wore a uniform. Both tried to get her to calm down and leave, said the man, whose account was corroborated by other people on Park Manor.
“Honestly, I thought she was one of [the deputies’] mothers, the way they tried to help her do the right thing,” said the man, who would not provide his name or allow NOLA.com to publish the videos because they had been turned over to the Sheriff’s Office as evidence.
Eventually, the woman rolled up her window and accelerated her car, hitting and dragging the plainclothes deputy down the street while he had his hand on her car, according to one of the videos. She then led both deputies on a car chase for almost a mile, to Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Lisa Drive, where a traffic jam blocked her progress at 3:52, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman said.
She hit the same deputy a second time after he stepped in front of her vehicle. At that point, the other deputy fired his duty pistol as many as nine times, striking and killing her, Lopinto said.
When Lopinto addressed reporters at the scene, her car was still on Veterans, cordoned off by crime scene tape, a body shield and a number of Sheriff’s Office vehicles.
Lopinto didn’t identify the deputy whom the woman targeted with her car but said he went to the hospital to be treated for minor injuries. He also didn’t identify the deputy who killed the woman.
Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputies stand along Veterans Memorial Boulevard at Lisa Drive in Metairie, where a deputy shot dead a woman who had twice used her car to strike a deputy on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021.
The man who recorded the videos said the workers didn’t deserve the treatment they received from the woman. To support his point, he pulled up a video of them going up to residents living near the site of another water main repair and giving them their parish-provided lunches.
But he said he also was upset that the woman let the situation devolve to the point where she paid with her life.
“They really tried to help the lady,” the man said of the deputies. “And she f—-d them over.”
nola.com
