Trooper’s death went unnoticed for half a day
A Louisiana man was arrested over the weekend in a series of shootings that left two people dead, including a state trooper whose death was not discovered for more than 12 hours after he was shot, authorities said.
Master Trooper Adam Gaubert of the Louisiana State Police was found dead in his police car around 5 p.m. Saturday in Ascension Parish, the State Police said at a news briefing Monday. They said Matthew Reese Mire, 31, had ambushed Gaubert, 47, sometime around 2:30 a.m., after the trooper had parked his car to fill out some paperwork.
“Losing a co-worker like Adam puts a hole in your heart,” Col. Lamar Davis, superintendent of the State Police, said at the briefing. He said that it was “absolutely unacceptable” that it took so long for the police to discover that Gaubert, a 19-year agency veteran, had been fatally shot.
Davis said the delay in discovering the killing had prompted the State Police to consider procedural changes, including “expanded GPS coverage, dormant activity alerts and redundant personnel tracking by supervisors.”
“We are learning from this experience,” he said.
Gaubert’s death, police said, came in the middle of Mire’s shooting spree. First, around midnight, he shot two people in a mobile home park in Livingston Parish, police said. The Ascension Parish Sheriff ’s Office said it believed Mire “was familiar with” the victims, who were expected to recover from their injuries.
Then, the State Police said, Mire stole a Chevrolet Silverado and ambushed Gaubert in Ascension Parish. It was unclear what time Gaubert was shot, police said, but they noted that Mire was captured on surveillance footage around 2:30 a.m. as he drove toward the area where the trooper was parked.
The State Police had asked for radio silence Saturday so that troopers could coordinate the search for Mire, who they said had run into a wooded area after his shooting rampage. Troopers ending their shift around 5 a.m. were asked not to sign off over the radio, which may have been why Gaubert’s silence did not raise questions.
He wasn’t discovered until someone reported that they had seen a driver who appeared unresponsive in a State Police car, the police said.
After he killed Gaubert, Mire forced his way into the home of Pamela Adair, 37, and Joseph Schexnayder, 43, around 3 a.m. and shot them, the Ascension Parish Sheriff ’s Office said. Adair died at a hospital from her injuries Saturday, while Schexnayder was in critical but stable condition.