BOGALUSA, La. — Bogalusa police are asking for help identifying two people believed to be connected to a shooting outside the Bogalusa High School football stadium Friday night. That shooting left a 15-year-old boy dead.
“The 15-year-old, he actually had a gun in his hand and had fired some rounds off,” police chief Kendall Bullen said.
Chief Bullen says about 20 shots were fired between the boy and two other suspects. Bullen says the boy, who’s from Covington, was a suspect in a shooting a week earlier. That shooting left one person injured.
“We think this shooting was retaliation from that shooting,” Bullen said.
That retaliation marred the Bogalusa High School football homecoming game. It ended early in the fourth quarter. Bullen says it’s part of a bigger problem, involving kids with guns.
“It’s like [getting] guns is going into a candy store and getting candy or something,” Bullen said. “They all have them.”
The number of shootings and homicides inside the city has spiked recently. With 30 years on the force, Bullen says the city averages one or two homicides a year. So far this year there’s been eight.
“That’s the most I can remember in my career here,” Bullen said.
For one to happen near a crowded football stadium is concerning.
“It is very frustrating and it’s hard to wrap your mind around,” Bogalusa Mayor Wendy O’Quin-Perrette said.
Mayor Perrette said the shooting had nothing to do with the high school or any students. She said the amount of gun violence happening in the city is unprecedented.
“It’s not just Bogalusa, it’s just new to Bogalusa and it’s sad that we’re even having to be introduced to it,” Perrette said.
Already facing a manpower issue Bullen says his department is working non-stop on ways to end it but needs help from outside the department. The department is working with AFT to trace guns taken off the street and helping to create a task force with neighboring agencies.
“This is kids’ lives that are on the line. It’s their future,” Perrette said. “Their future relies on our community doing the right thing now.”
Bullen says there were five reported shootings in the city Sunday. No one was hurt but a home and a car had been shot. It’s unclear right now whether they’re connected to Friday’s shooting.