Isreal Flores, 37

Metairie, Louisiana
December 03, 2016

Agencies: Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office

Cause of death: Shooting

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Last updated: almost 6 years ago

Overview

A Jefferson Parish SWAT unit on Saturday shot and killed a man who holed up in a stranger’s house in Metairie just minutes after he shot and wounded a deputy responding to a domestic disturbance call about midday.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said Deputy Nicholas Songy, 48, was at University Medical Center and was “alert and doing well” just after 1 p.m. He was released later in the day.Normand said the SWAT team, which stormed the second floor of the 46th Street house using exterior stairs, ordered the man, who appeared to be in his 30s, to lower his weapon and shot him when he refused.

Songy and the man, later identified as Flores, exchanged gunfire — two shots from the man and at least two from Songy. Songy was shot in the leg, and Flores was hit as well.

JPSO spokesman Col. John Fortunato said Flores fired first.

The Sheriff's Office said Flores was wanted on a number of attachments for being a felon in possession of a firearm as well as several drug-related offenses.

Responding officers evacuated residents and interviewed witnesses who said they saw the man flee the Severn Avenue scene. A police dog tracked the man, who was bleeding from his wound, to the 46th Avenue home, a few blocks away.

Normand said a man who owned that house was out front and called his wife, who was inside sleeping, and got her out safely. The injured man had gone up the back stairs and into the upper level of the home.

Kevin Couvillion, who lives across the street from that home, said he had just gotten a call from a neighbor, who told him an officer had been shot nearby and the man hadn’t been caught yet.

Couvillion, his mother and his girlfriend immediately started checking their phones to find out what was going on. Couvillion went into the backyard to lock the gate, but not before making a quick joke that the man might be swimming around in the pool.

When he got back inside, his girlfriend stepped out the door to find a SWAT team member running down the street.

Minutes later, Couvillion heard a barrage of shots fired from inside the 46th Avenue house, and the incident was over.

Residents later gathered on corners and stood in doorways watching the home and chatting with neighbors.

Couvillion, clad in a green Grinch shirt and fuzzy red-and-white Santa shorts, said the neighborhood is typically very quiet.

A woman who declined to give her name agreed.