Police investigating gunfire: Shots fired near Main Street ballpark Monday; no injuries

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Bogalusa police officers responded to gunfire Monday night at about 9:24 p.m.

Chief Joe Culpepper said officers went to the Main Street Ballpark after area residents called in reports of shots fired, but officers didn’t see anyone shooting. They did see evidence of gunplay.

“They recovered some shell casings and some phones and they’re trying to figure out who they belong to and all that,” he said.

He said one casing is a .45 caliber and he’s not sure about the other. The chief said the phones were an Apple iPhone 5 and an iPhone 6.

The chief couldn’t say what might have caused the gunplay, and he said so far no witnesses have come forward to aid in the investigation.

“According to this report, nobody knows anything, but somebody does,” he said.

The chief asked any witnesses to please call the police department with tips.

Culpepper said he’s not heard of any injuries from the gunfire.

“There were none reported, and they notified all the hospitals,” he said.

Culpepper said his officers are turning the bullets over to investigators with the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office. The chief said that office maintains the state database for weapons involved in criminal activity, so it is possible the bullets could be traced to a gun, if it has been used to commit a crime.

In addition, Culpepper said his officers are going to try and get a look inside the iPhones to see what they can find.

“They took them and they are going to see what’s in them,” he said.

In response to the shootings, Culpepper said the police will now enforce a nighttime curfew at that park.

“We are going to start closing the park at dark so hopefully this sort of thing won’t happen,” he said. “The park itself will be closed at dark so there will be no more hanging out.”