Residents waited somberly outside the Iberville Parish Courthouse Tuesday, with the flags at half-staff and two mobile blood collection trucks parked outside the entrance — the only indication that something tragic had happened there the night before.
They traded rumors and scraps of information as they stood in the grass, preparing to donate blood in honor of a deputy who was killed and a detective who was injured Monday night in a shooting at the courthouse.
“This isn’t us,” resident Kayla Garvin said. “This isn’t Iberville.”
One deputy was killed, and a detective was critically wounded, during a struggle with suspect Latrell Clark, who was being questioned in connection with a sex crimes investigation, according to the Louisiana State Police. Clark was also killed.
According to the Louisiana State Police, Clark attempted to disarm Capt. Brett Stassi Jr. after learning he was under arrest, resulting in a flurry of gunfire that struck the three men. Responding Deputy Charles Riley and Clark died in the hospital. Stassi, son of Sheriff Brett Stassi, remains in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday afternoon.
For the community of Iberville Parish, the killing adds “another layer of sorrow” to a year already fraught with grief, a statement from the city of St. Gabriel said. In addition to Riley’s death, St. Gabriel Police Capt. Devin Boutte was found stabbed to death in his home in July.
Reactions of shock and sadness poured in Monday night and into Tuesday, as the public and elected officials alike mourned the loss of Riley.
“Rest in Peace Deputy Charles Riley,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill wrote on X. “I’m praying for his family, friends, and his fellow officers at the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office. Please continue to pray hard for Captain Stassi to make a full recovery after the horrific shooting last night.”
Gov. Jeff Landry missed a press conference about Medicaid in order to visit the injured detective in the hospital, Secretary of Health Bruce Greenstein said.
In an update Tuesday morning, the sheriff said his son is in intensive care and “continues to fight for his life.”
“Our deputies are deeply hurting as we grieve the loss of one of our own and pray for another’s recovery,” the sheriff said. “Please continue to keep the men and women of the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office in your thoughts as they navigate this tragedy together.”
‘A piece that is missing’
Friends described Riley as a “jokester,” a family man and a beloved presence in the community.
He served with the Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office for six years in the Uniform Patrol Division. For St. Gabriel resident and friend Sarah Haydel, he was the person to give her teenage sons their first speeding tickets.
“Even though he gave them their first speeding tickets and lectured them, they were still extremely close with Riley,” Haydel said.
Her boys learned of his death before she did, she said.
“They walked in the room, and my son just broke down,” Haydel said. “He said, ‘Mama, it was Riley.’ And I just started crying immediately.”
Riley’s former police partner, Josh Eaton, said Riley loved his family dearly and always spoke with pride about his children.
“His legacy is his kids,” Eaton said.
Riley’s character as a deputy was best illustrated in a traffic stop they made together, Eaton said. A young woman was leaving town with her child to escape a bad situation, he said, and didn’t have a child car seat.
So, Riley removed his personal car seat out of the back of his car and gave it to the mother.
“He went to his unit and grabbed it out the back and said, ‘Take this, make sure your kid’s safe, and get to a safe area,’” Eaton said. “He even installed it in the car for her. It was that in depth, and that was the type of person he was.”
Funeral details for Riley have not been released yet. The Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office is asking people to donate blood in Stassi’s name to Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge to aid in his recovery.