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A two-day manhunt ended Friday when Terrebonne Parish deputies stormed a Houma apartment where a suspect had kept them at bay for more than an hour. St. Bernadette Elementary School was kept on lockdown as sharpshooters and other deputies surrounded a nearby apartment building on Southland Circle, where a man accused of pulling a gun on two deputies the night before was barricaded.
After an hour of negotiation attempts deputies made a forced entry, apprehending 32-year-old Cody Dupre.
Dupre had warrants for theft and aggravated battery. When two deputies tried to execute those warrants at a different location Thursday night, they said he pulled a gun on them. A foot chase ensued during which Dupre climbed a fence, evading arrest. A search continued throughout the night and into the day, with detectives checking on Dupre’s possible whereabouts. Friday afternoon they got a tip that Dupre was at the Southland Circle location. Jessica Brown, who was a guest at the apartment, said she was sleeping when officers arrived, shortly before 2:30 p.m.
“I woke up to the cops banging on the door asking if anyone else was in the apartment,” she said. “I told them I didn’t know.”
She knew that Dupre had come the night before, to visit another woman staying.
She checked to see if anyone else was there.
“I looked into the bathroom and nobody was in there, and I looked in (another) room, and I looked under the bed and somebody was under the bed. Which was the same guy from last night. Which was Cody. He begged me in that split of time not to tell them, but like I have a child … I could’ve went down for all of this.”
After informing deputies that someone else was there, Brown exited the apartment with her child in her arms, leaving the door open and — accidentally — her caged cockatiel behind. At St. Bernadette’s, some children said they heard shouting and saw police officers with dogs and, in the words of one, “men in bullet-proof vests with big guns.” The school is separated from Southland Circle by a broad field.
A lock-down order stating “this is not a drill” was broadcast on the public-address system and parents were notified; classroom doors were locked. Children crouched as they have been trained to do in emergencies. Under the watchful eyes of officers, children were dismissed through the side of the building opposite where the action was taking place.
Nearby apartments were evacuated, and residents were kept from entering their homes for safety purposes.
Officers tried to communicate with Dupre, who did not respond. An Acadian Ambulance team remained in place at the scene, as did members of the Bayou Cane Fire Department.
Tear-gas was lobbed into the apartment to no avail. Officers later said that was because of the apartment’s configuration.
“He wouldn’t come out, he wouldn’t answer,” Larpenter said. “So after an hour we don’t know if he had done himself in, is he gonna take drugs, is he on drugs, is he passed out — which he wasn’t.”
“We wanted the element of surprise,” Larpenter said.
Officers barged into the apartment as a flash-bang went off, and another cannister of gas released.
“He’s disoriented with gas in his face, and the team walked in and got him out,” Larpenter said.
He offered praise for his deputies and the hard work they do preparing for situations like this.
“We train them 100 hours just on SWAT,” said Sheriff Jerry Larpenter at the scene. “At least once a month they train for eight hours with day and night firing and classroom training. When somebody barricades it’s his choice. This guy did not want to communicate.”
After officers removed him from the apartment, Dupre was brought to Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center.
“He’s getting an observation there, and then he is going to the jail,” Larpenter said.
Dupre was later booked for aggravated assault, aggravated assault on a peace officer, aggravated assault with a firearm, resisting police with force or violence and two counts of failure to appear on prior charges.
He remains there in lieu of a combined bond of $409,500.
The cockatiel is also behind bars — in its cage — rescued by deputies and claimed by Brown, who placed the bird on the passenger seat of her pickup before driving off.
