Sheriff: Theriot confessed to weekend killings, stole gun from his father

A 21-year-old suspected of shooting five people over the weekend has confessed to the killings, officials say.

On Tuesday, Ascension Sheriff Bobby Webre and Livingston Sheriff Jason Ard held a joint press conference to release the latest info in the case.

Sheriff Webre said Dakota Theriot, who was arrested in Richmond County, Virginia Sunday, confessed to the killings. Authorities have said Theriot shot and killed his girlfriend, her brother and father in Livingston Parish. They say he then took her father's pickup truck, drove to Ascension Parish, and shot his parents.

Investigators believe Theriot committed the shootings using a gun he stole from his father. It's also believed Theriot had recently moved in with his girlfriend, Summer Ernest, because he had been kicked out of his parents' Gonzales home. Officials said the two had only been dating for about two weeks.

He is due in court in Virginia Friday and is expected to be returned to Louisiana soon to face murder charges.