The decision would cost him his life in what would eventually be a double murder-suicide.

Helping a victim of a car accident was par for the course for Louviere, 26.

Before excelling at the Kenner Police Academy, graduating first in his class and joining the Westwego Police Department in July 2015, he served in Afghanistan as a United States Marine. Along the way, he fell in love, got married and had two children.

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“He was a father and a husband first,” Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch said at a news conference Friday. “He’s a family man, a father, a husband and a public servant.”

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Though he was en route home to his wife, four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son, Louviere performed his sworn duty by approaching the damaged 2010 Dodge Charger he saw at the side of the road at around 6:30 a.m.

Behind the Charger was a U-Haul truck, and in front of it was a pickup. It looked like an early-morning, three-car pile-up. But Louviere found a far worse sight than what he expected.

On the concrete next to the car lay 31-year-old Simone Veal. She was two months pregnant and bleeding from at least one gunshot wound.

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“At this point, Simone Veal is on the ground, there’s significant damage to her car and obviously a significant amount of blood in the street,” Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand told Nola.com.

Louviere spoke with the U-Haul’s driver, 32-year-old Sylvester Holt, before turning his full attention to Veal. As he leaned over to closely tend to her wounds, Holt walked up behind him, raised a pistol and shot Louviere point-black in the back of head.

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Then, witnesses said, Holt walked over to Veal’s prostrate body, aimed and shot her several more times.

Louviere was rushed to the West Jefferson Medical Center, where, two days after celebrating his 26th birthday, the officer was declared dead. Also declared deceased were Veal and her unborn child.

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“This was a coldblooded murder,” Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch said at a news conference Friday. “Officer Louviere was shot in the back of the head; he had no idea what was coming.”

Normand, who called the slaying a “cowardly act,” said, “It’s a complete gut check for the Westwego Police Department and all their brothers and sisters in law enforcement.”

Police later learned that Holt and Veal were married in 2012 but had grown estranged. Veal had a new boyfriend, and she was pregnant with his child, which infuriated Holt, according to Normand.

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That morning, Holt drove a U-Haul truck to Veal’s home, where he found her climbing into her Charger, preparing to begin her day.

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He rammed the truck into her car several times, all the while shooting at the pregnant woman from the truck’s open window.

She managed to speed off, but when she approached the generally busy intersection of Barataria and Ames Boulevards in Marrero, La., just before sunrise, he rear-ended her car. She crashed the Charger into a pickup truck in front of her.

Holt stopped the U-Haul and continued to fire shots at her.

He had paused by the time Louviere happened upon the scene, mistaking the scene for a normal crash. After Holt killed the officer and Veal, police said, he ditched the U-Haul truck several blocks away, leaving in it two boxes of bullets.

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Holt then hailed a cab, which he directed to bring him into downtown New Orleans. From Marrero, this requires cruising across the Crescent City Connection, the twin cantilever bridges that cross the Mississippi River and connect the city’s east and west banks. Once on the crowded bridge, though, Holt told his cabdriver that he was going to vomit and needed to be let out, according to police.

After exiting the taxi, Holt climbed over a concrete barrier and down to one of the metal support girders hanging under the bridge. By this point, more than 20 police agencies were looking for him, according to Nola.com.

At 10:30 a.m., they found him on the bridge.

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There he remained for almost seven hours, contemplating his choices. During that time, Holt admitted to shooting both Veal and Louviere, police said.

“He actually did not know the ultimate condition of both of the victims but had indicated that he had a pretty good idea they were dead,” Normand told Nola.com.

Police attempted to coax him back onto the bridge, where he would have been arrested and, as Normand told the Advocate, later booked on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of feticide, at the least.

Holt was no stranger to confinement, having been released from jail on Jan. 7 when the Jefferson Parish District Attorney decided not to pursue charges against him his arrest for allegedly raping a woman at gunpoint. The alleged victim was uncooperative in the case, WWL reported.

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Holt had also previously been arrested in St. Bernard Parish for aggravated assault with a weapon after he allegedly knocked on an ex-girlfriend’s window, waved his gun and threatened to “flat line” her. He was awaiting a February hearing on those charges.

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As the winter sun began to set over the river at about 5:30 p.m. — nearly seven hours into negotiations with police — Holt apparently decided he didn’t want to return to jail.

He pulled out a 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun, pointed the barrel at his chest and pulled the trigger.

Immediately New Orleans EMS Deputy Chief Cedric Palmisano rappelled down to the girder to retrieve Holt, who was still alive. It took about 45 minutes for authorities to bring Holt to a hospital, where he died later that night.

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All that was left to do at that point was mourn the dead.

Veal’s mother spoke to the Advocate, simply saying of her daughter, “She was my baby.”

Meanwhile Barry Blanchard, Louviere’s brother and a member of the New Orleans Police Department, called the slain officer, “a family man and a man of God.”

“He was an excellent person and cared about people,” Blanchard said.