Shooting in Plaquemine sends one juvenile to the hospital, leads to charges for a second

After 7 p.m. last Friday afternoon, the Plaquemine Police Department responded to a report of a shooting just off Belleview Road, Chief Kenny Payne said.

“There was a group of juveniles, 14 to 16, who were gathered across the street from City Park,” he said, emphasizing the incident did not happen on the park grounds.

Payne then dispelled rumors that the shooting had occurred at City Park.

“Those rumors are untrue,” he said. “This all occurred outside the park at a private residence. My officers regularly patrol the park.”

“One of the juveniles produced a handgun we later found out he had stolen from his uncle,” Payne said. “His statement and those taken from the other teenagers confirmed that.”

The suspect, who was not named because he is a juvenile, said he was not familiar with the gun and accidently fired it, striking another juvenile in the leg, he continued.

The bullet went through the leg of the juvenile shot and he was transported to Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Payne said.

The alleged shooter was charged as a juvenile with aggravated second degree battery and theft of a firearm, he said. “We were fortunate that the young boy or someone else wasn’t hurt worse.”

“I want to urge youngsters if the find a weapon, call us,” Payne said. “Don’t try to unload it, don’t try to do anything with it.”

“If you don’t know what it is or how to operate it to make it safe, just turn it over to police,” he said.