Two Louisiana Deputies Arrested on Manslaughter Charges Over Fatal Shooting

Two sheriff’s deputies in Louisiana are being charged with manslaughter as officials claim they shot an unarmed man in a car last week, per the New York Times. 

Deputies Isaac Hughes, 29, and Johnathan Louis, 35, were identified by Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto III of Jefferson Parish as using “not justified” force when they shot and killed Daniel Vallee during a Marrero, La. standoff around 2 a.m. last Tuesday. Hughes and Louis were also fired from their jobs. The shooting followed a noise complaint, when the sheriff said Vallee was found in a parked car in front of a “known crack house.” Hughes joined the department in 2013, while Louis did so in 2020. 

After a 12-minute standoff in which Vallee is said to have refused to exit, he then started the vehicle, per Lopinto. Deputies then “drew their weapons at that point in time,” before Valle raised his hands before reportedly hitting the car’s horn. The two deputies then fired multiple shots, according to Lopinto. 

“My opinion, that horn, whether it scares my deputy or whether my deputy reacts to the shot of the horn, ends up firing his weapon,” the sheriff said. “The second deputy fired his weapons reacting to that gunfire.”

Valle’s family lawyer Glenn McGovern spoke to WWL-TV about the incident. 

“You can’t automatically shoot the car, shoot the occupants of the car if you can get out of way,” McGovern said. “It has to be an immediate danger and we know, apparently, from reports he wasn’t armed. So, where’s the immediate threat?”

Lopinto said that the use of force was “not justified” and claimed it to be “certainly not intentional” in the shooting, and that an investigation and body cam footage “backed up” what they told investigators. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office started using body cameras last year and the sheriff said that this marked the first shooting to be recorded since. 

“He’s a struggling addict. That doesn’t mean he should have been shot and killed in the manner that he was,” Valle’s aunt, Tara Phillips, told NOLA.com.