Correctional officers shoot, kill inmate during transport in West Feliciana Parish

ST. FRANCISVILLE, La. (AP) — Louisiana State Police are investigating after two prison transport officers shot and killed an inmate trying to escape, authorities said.

It happened shortly before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on U.S. 61 in West Feliciana Parish near the Mississippi state line, Lt. Jared Sandifer, a spokesman for state police, said in a news release.

Catahoula Parish Correctional officers Mark Cagle and Johnny Nelson were transporting two inmates from the central Louisiana facility to Baton Rouge for court when one of the inmates faked a seizure as the van neared St. Francisville, Catahoula Parish Sheriff Toney Edwards said in a post on Facebook.

The officers stopped the van to help the inmate, identified as Raymond Huddleston, 46, of Baton Rouge, but he lunged from the van and attacked both officers, Edwards said.

Huddleston tried to grab Nelson’s gun, striking both officers while the weapon was still in its holster, Edwards said. Huddleston dropped the weapon and got into the van’s driver’s seat to flee, but both officers were able to fire at him “in an attempt to stop the threat of injuries to the other inmate and/or other people,” the sheriff said.

Huddleston died from gunshot injuries, The Advocate reported. It was unclear which officer fired the shot that killed him, the sheriff’s office said.

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Both officers were treated Wednesday for non-life-threatening injuries and released from an area hospital.

Baton Rouge Police arrested Huddleston in March 2023 on one count each of aggravated kidnapping, domestic abuse battery (strangulation), obstruction of justice, possession of a firearm or carrying a concealed weapon by a person convicted of certain felonies, domestic abuse aggravated assault, resisting an officer and illegal possession of stolen firearms, according to arrest documents.

The other inmate who was in the van was not injured.