A 27-year-old father of three in Mamou, Louisiana, was shot and killed by a police officer on July 6 following a confrontation in an isolated backwoods area. 

Dejuan Guillory had finished working two contracting jobs when he decided to do something fun with his girlfriend, DeQuince Brown. Guillory and his girlfriend chose to take out his ATV and go “frogging” in the woods.

The Guillory family’s attorney, Pride Doran, told The Root that during the couples adventure, a parked vehicle flashed its lights at the couple, prompting them to stop. Then Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Department deputy Paul Holden LaFleur exited the car. 

LaFleur reportedly asked Guillory and Brown for identification and when they did not produce proper ID, he ordered them to get off of the ATV. Doran says that Guillory and the officer got into a heated argument and, after a brief altercation, LaFleur told Brown and Guillory to get on the ground.

In a Pen Point News interview with Joe Long, the attorney for DeQuince Brown, details of the moment before the shooting were revealed. 

“They were both on the ground. Guillory was on the ground, on his belly, his hands behind his back, and the officer had a gun trained at Guillory’s back, maybe a foot or two from Guillory’s body. They were still arguing back and forth but Guillory was on the ground as directed. His hands were behind his back. He was not resisting. All of a sudden, a shot rang out,” Long told Pen Point News.

Long said while Guillory had his hands behind he his back, he begged: “Please don’t shoot me; I have three kids.”

According to Long, Brown then jumped on the officer’s back to prevent him from killing her boyfriend and bit LaFleur, which resulted in him getting injured. LaFleur then fired three more shots at Guillory. DeQuince Brown was arrested on attempted first-degree attempted murder of a police officer. 

Following the shooting, the police department announced that LaFleur was parked on the dirt road at 4:10 a.m. because he was answering a burglary call.