A sheriff has said two people including a police officer are dead in south-west Louisiana after a domestic dispute in which three people were stabbed, an officer who responded was shot and the suspected assailant then barricaded himself inside a store.

Officers threw in tear gas and then stormed the JR Food Mart and arrested the suspect, 35-year-old Harrison Lee Wiley Jr, after he had refused to come out.

St Landry parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz said the deceased were 51-year-old officer Henry Nelson and 40-year-old Shameka Johnson. Two other women were stabbed: Johnson’s sister, 34-year-old Shurlay Johnson, and Courtney Jolivette, the wife of the suspect.

Guidroz said did not identify the man, who drove his car into a nearby convenience store in Sunset, about 70 miles west of Baton Rouge, on Wednesday and barricaded himself inside. The stabbings had taken place about three blocks from the gas station, Guidroz said.

Three people inside the store – a clerk, a cook and a customer – made it out safely, Guidroz said.



Sunset is a town of about 2,900 in St Landry Parish, 13 miles north of Lafayette.

The police department consists of Chief Louie Padilla, six officers, four dispatchers, a secretary and 12 reserve officers, according to the department’s website.