CIS, TGMC to host ‘Love Your Heart’ lunch
January 29, 2014
VCHS principal will not return next year
February 5, 2014
Travis Anthony Crouch, who was Morgan City’s police chief for nearly one year, will be laid to rest following a mass of Christian burial at 3 p.m., Thursday at Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church in Morgan City.
Crouch, 46, was found dead in his Biloxi, Miss. casino hotel room at roughly 11 p.m., Friday night from a single gunshot wound, according to Biloxi police. Foul play is not suspected, investigating officer Sgt. Chris De Back said, but it could take police a few weeks to determine whether Crouch intentionally took his own life.
Crouch was shot with a handgun registered for his personal use, De Back said.
Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi III, who appointed Crouch to the position last February, called the 22-plus-year department veteran a “guy that was no-nonsense, knew right from wrong, but still had compassion.”
Crouch was credited with unifying a city torn over the department and its leadership when he became chief. He blasted his cellphone number to the public, spearheaded efforts to establish the department’s social media presence and an interactive smartphone app and helped revamp operations of an ill-functioning jail, among other achievements, the mayor said.
“Chief Crouch came in as an appointee when it was almost 50-50 in this town, but after one year, you couldn’t find one person that said he wasn’t doing a tremendous job for our city,” Grizzaffi said. “He led from the front. He wasn’t an administrative type of chief. He was a chief that led by example, and he had the police force running about as good as it’s run in its history. It’s a sad loss for our community.
“We hope to not let that go to waste.”
Crouch, in Biloxi on leisure, was engaged to be married, Grizzaffi said, and both he and his fiancee had children.
“He was just a unique individual. Chief Crouch was just different. He could be abrasive one moment, he could be kind and compassionate the next,” said Asst. Chief Michael Banks, who worked with Crouch since 1991. “You never knew how to gauge him, but his focus here at Morgan City PD never changed; it was to serve the community.”
Banks has been tapped to lead the department on an interim basis. He, too, highlighted Crouch’s emphasis on making himself publicly available and said the department would build on the chief’s groundwork.
“Everyone here bought into what Chief Crouch brought to the table,” Banks said. “No one here feels like we want to let that go undone. We are going to continue the things he implemented and we’re going to continue to achieve a higher standard for ourselves.”
Crouch will be buried in the Morgan City Cemetery following his mass. Visitation is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Thursday at Twin City Funeral Home.
“His death has turned a light on for me and others here,” Banks said. “We need to be closer, you know.”
Chief Travis A. Crouch
