Witnesses in Paradis heard gunshots and saw police arrest a man accused of shooting a St. Charles deputy by yanking him out of a silver truck.
The officer, later identified as Cpl. Burt Hazeltine, was shot several times while directing traffic in a Paradis school zone shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday morning. Capt. Pat Yoes, spokesman for the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office, described the shooting as an ambush. He said that Hazeltine and the suspected shooter, later identified as John Paul Devillier, a resident of Gulfport, Miss., and native of St. Charles Parish, had gotten into a confrontation seconds before the officer was gunned down.
According to a Dollar General employee who witnessed the shooting, a man driving a silver truck pulled in to the Time Saver parking lot before firing several shots at the officer.
“The guy just opened fire and hit the deputy multiple times,” Yoes said. He added that it was an “apparent ambush.”
According to witnesses, the shooting occurred about 9 a.m. and the deputy returned fire.
Denise Rocco, of Luling, said she was shopping in the Dollar General in Paradis when “I heard pops. I heard shots.”
Rocco said she, along with other store employees and customers, rushed outside the store when they witnessed sheriff’s deputies rush to a silver truck parked in the Time Saver parking lot near the school zone.
She saw a chaotic scene with people “ducking and dodging” as they tried to determine the source of the gun fire.
“I heard a woman screaming ‘an officer is bleeding,'” Rocco said as she saw deputies arrive at the scene. “They showed up and apprehended the man … yanked him out of his truck.”
Rocco pointed out a silver truck with a black passenger window parked in the Time Saver parking lot as the man’s vehicle.
Terence Brashears, of New Orleans, a Coca-Cola delivery man, also was in the Dollar General when he heard two rounds of pops, four to five per round and also ran outside the store.
Brashears also witnessed several deputies rushing to the silver truck and pull the driver out. They wrestled the man to the ground and landed in a ditch where they apprehended and cuffed him.
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