Shreveport (AP),Police in northwest Louisiana have identified an officer who was killed Wednesday night and the suspect wanted in his slaying.
At news conference Thursday, Shreveport Police Chief Willie Shaw said Thomas LaValley, 24, a four-year veteran of the force, was shot multiple times while answering a call about a suspicious person at a home in the city’s Queensborough neighborhood.
Shaw said neighbors told the officer that the man inside the home was wanted. Shaw says the officer didn’t know the man was armed, and he went inside and was shot.
Shaw said an arrest warrant has been issued for Grover Cannon, 27.
Shaw repeatedly said that capturing Cannon is now the department’s top priority.
“We will scour the Earth. No matter where he goes we will find him,” Shaw said.
Police already had a warrant for Cannon’s arrest on a charge of second-degree murder, which carries an automatic life sentence; they now have one for first-degree murder, which carries a possible death penalty.
Asked if Crime Stoppers had set a reward, Shaw said, “Not at this point. We don’t need that incentive. We will find him. He is our No. 1 priority to locate.”
“No matter what rock he crawls under we will find him,” Shaw said. “I would suggest that he turn himself in immediately. Because we are looking for him. I say ‘we’ in the biggest sense of the word. We are not bound by state lines. We are not bound by county lines. We are not bound by country lines. … We will not rest until this individual is brought to justice.”
He called Cannon a coward who shot and ran.
Shaw said LaValley was taken to University Health, where he died a short time later.
Shaw described Lavalley, who came to the department after working as a cameraman at KTBS TV, as “one of our top young people” in his class and a hero who will never be forgotten.
“He was doing what he loved,” Shaw repeated. “He did not hesitate to confront a bad person.”
Shaw said LaValley came to his office while working at the television station and said he’d applied for a job but had not been hired.
“I told him to apply again, and if he qualified, he would be hired.”
LaValley didn’t believe him, Shaw said, but he assured LaValley that he would be hired if he met therequirements.
Police spokesman Bill Goodin says Shreveport police, Caddo Parish deputies, along with DeSoto Parish deputies, U.S. Marshals and the state police have joined the search for Cannon.
It seems to me that our communities its becoming more like a war between our men and law enforcement. Sort of like people are starting to take a shoot first or get shot mind set. So the question is who is gonna win the war? I have the answer…NOBODY! How many lives have to be taken before there are changes made? There has to be an end too all the violence. The law enforcement agencies across this country not only need a revamp of their policies and procedures but they also need to do alot in the department of public relations. They are going to have to go out into the communities and regain our trust.
Comments
Our people look so innoncent…(smirk)
It’s all the way the media spins things. But really, It’s deeper than race. I am personally writing an article about it right now.
If our people just do positive things and stand for truth they would be better off…You almost become numb to the headlines..
I’m tired of reporting this stuff. But I have to. true, we need to stop doing certain things, BUT — in some instances we do nothing to bring some of these tragedies on ourselves. We souldn’t have to live in fear.
THey kill us for looking “Suspect”. Our young black men (some young white men) are emulating the stereotypical images fed to us on the T.V. The government, the powers that be are the ones controlling the media and TV, they put these thuglike, and gangsta like images that intice our children to become a part of this so called gangsta or thug culture, then they turn around and kill us for it. Just like they put crack cocaine in our hoods and lock us up for selling it, the same way the put gun shops and liquor stores right in the inner city areas. It’s a lot of conspiring going on.