Chauvin man shoots friend

The Tri-parish murder rate rose last week after a Chauvin man allegedly shot and killed a friend with a shotgun.

The incident occurred last Thursday night. The Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office received a call at around 10:45 p.m. reporting someone had been shot on the corner of Roland Henry and South Roosevelt streets in Montegut.

When deputies arrived on the scene they discovered the body of Earl Adam Dehart, 19, 1212 Roosevelt St., Montegut, in the middle of the street.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, having sustained a single gunshot wound to the stomach, the sheriff’s office reported.

Investigators believe Leblanc shot Dehart in the stomach with a .410-guage shotgun.

Detectives received information Dehart and his three friends were drinking when Dehart got into an altercation with his friend, Gary Leblanc, 19, of 4431 Bayouside Dr., Chauvin.

Witnesses reported Leblanc and Dehart arranged to fight on Roosevelt Street near Dehart’s home.

“(Dehart) called (Leblanc) and told him to come over to the house, so that they could finish their business. So, (Leblanc) arranged to go over there and finish their business on the street and that’s how it happened,” said Captain Malcolm Wolfe, spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.

Dehart pulled a knife on Leblanc and Leblanc shot him, Wolfe said.

Following a tip, detectives arrested Leblanc at a trailer court in Bayou Blue in Terrebonne Parish.

Leblanc was booked with second- degree murder and transported to the Terrebonne Parish Jail.

As of press time, investigators had not recovered the murder weapon and did not know what Leblanc and Dehart had been arguing about.

“We haven’t gotten to the bottom of that. It’s an argument that got started and nobody could specifically say exactly why,” said Wolfe.

The sheriff’s office is requesting anyone with information concerning the investigation to call the detective bureau at (985) 876-2500.