Two arrested after shooting LPSO deputies

Two Georgia men were captured after a brief manhunt in a sugar-cane field near the St. Charles Parish line Tuesday after allegedly shooting two Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s deputies.

Cousins Robert Alan Power, 18, and Daniel Steward Rhodes, 22, were captured after authorities from Lafourche, St. Charles and Jefferson parishes and the Louisiana State Police scoured the field for over 90 minutes.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said mid-day Tuesday that Deputy Bridget Rupe and Deputy Roland Guilliot had undergone medical treatment at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center and were recovering from their wounds.

Power and Rhodes are expected to be charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer sometime Tuesday, the sheriff said.

The two men stole a white 1990 Chevrolet pickup truck in Georgia and traveled along La. 1 before stopping at a convenience store outside of Thibodaux, Webre said. Surveillance cameras recorded the two in the store parking lot at 9 p.m. Monday.

At approximately 6 a.m. Tuesday, a man driving a blue 1999 Chevrolet truck pulled into the store and pumped gas. He pulled his car closer to the front of the store and went inside to pay for the fuel, Webre said. One of the Georgia men climbed inside the vehicle and sped away, he said.

Guilliot and Rupe responded to a dispatchers alert, made shortly after the owner of the truck called police, and intercepted the stolen truck, Weber said. As the officers cuffed and searched the driver on La. 1, the second cousin circled back to the scene and opened fire on the officers. Guilliot was struck in the back and Rupe was hit in the arm near her elbow, the sheriff said. Both deputies’ injuries are described as moderate.

The two fled the scene in the stolen white truck, which they abandoned near a sugar-cane field in the St. Charles community, Webre said.

Several area law enforcement agencies joined in the manhunt for Power and Rhodes, the sheriff said.