This undated photo provided by the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office shows Ben Freeman. Freeman is the suspect in an attack that involved his former in-laws and the head of a hospital where he'd worked on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013, authorities said. (AP Photo/Lafourche Parish Sheriff Office)
December 27, 2013 - 2:29 AM
RACELAND, La. - A southern Louisiana man attacked his former in-laws, his current wife, and the head of a hospital where he'd worked, killing three before killing himself, authorities said.
The shootings happened about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans on Thursday, the first reported by Lafourche Parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux about 6:40 p.m. at a home in Lockport, Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Brennan Matherne said in a news release.
The suspect, Ben Freeman, 38, was the ex-husband of Gouaux's daughter Jeanne.
Gouaux's wife, Susan "Pixie" Gouaux, was dead when deputies arrived, Matherne said. Louis Phillip Gouaux and his daughter, Andrea Gouaux, were injured and taken to University Hospital in New Orleans. Both were in critical but stable condition, Matherne said.
The second shooting happened at another home about 20 minutes later in Raceland, where Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital administrator Milton Bourgeois was shot and killed at close range, Matherne said. His wife, Ann Bourgeois, was shot and taken to the New Orleans hospital, where she is in stable condition.
Freeman had been employed at three area hospitals over the last few years, including the Raceland hospital.
Freeman's wife, Denise Taylor Freeman, was found dead in the couple's home in Houma in Terrebonne Parish. Matherne said her cause of death was not immediately known.
A shotgun was used in the shootings, deputies said.
Ben Freeman was found along U.S. Highway 90 near Bayou Blue, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
News from © The Associated Press, 2013