A nurse embroiled in a custody fight with his ex-wife attacked his current wife, his former in-laws and his onetime boss in a rampage that spanned two parishes in Louisiana, leaving three dead before killing himself, authorities said.
The three survivors remained hospitalized Friday, two in critical condition, Brennan Matherne, a spokesman for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, said in an email. He said deputies are investigating the motive.
Ben Freeman, 38, first attacked his former in-laws with a shotgun in Lafourche Parish about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans, wounding parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux and Gouaux’s daughter Andrea. Both were in critical condition after surgery early Friday in New Orleans, Matherne wrote. Gouaux’s wife, Susan, was dead when deputies arrived, Matherne said earlier.
Gouaux called 911 around 6:40 p.m. Thursday from his home in Lockport, telling dispatchers he had been shot in the throat, the Courier newspaper in Houma reported. Freeman was divorced from Gouaux’s daughter Jeanne, whom he married in 1997.
Jeanne Gouaux — also a nurse — had filed several protective orders against Freeman, who had pleaded guilty to harassment charges and was allowed only supervised visits with their four children, Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre said. The last protective order expired less than a month ago, he said.
“Clearly, there has been a very difficult and complicated divorce/custody issue going on,” Webre said during a news conference late Thursday.
Court records show Freeman agreed in June to pay his ex-wife $22,560 in overdue child support payments dating back two years. A settlement filed the following month showed the couple would sell three adjacent lots near her parents’ house and split the $25,000 in proceeds; Freeman also agreed to pay Gouaux $39,000.
Jeanne Gouaux and the children lived with her parents for a while after the divorce, said Rita Bonvillain, 83, a neighbor of the family for nearly 30 years. She said Andrea Gouaux, a nurse like her sister Jeanne, was visiting from Texas.
About 20 minutes after the first shootings, Freeman arrived at the home of Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital CEO Milton Bourgeois in nearby Raceland, about 8 miles from Lockport. Bourgeois was shot and killed at close range; his wife, Ann, was shot in the leg and was listed in stable condition at a hospital, Matherne said.
Freeman had worked at the hospital as a registered nurse before he was fired in 2011, Webre said. Webre could not say why Freeman was fired but said police had been called there previously after Freeman damaged a room. Freeman told officers he would seek mental help, Webre said.
Freeman also had worked at two other hospitals, which along with St. Anne had been placed on lockdown for a time Thursday.
Ben Freeman was found dead around 10:45 p.m. along U.S. Highway 90 near Bayou Blue. He had shot himself in the head.
Officers searching for Freeman found the body of his wife, Denise Taylor Freeman, in the bathroom of their house, Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said. Her cause of death hasn’t been determined, but Freeman is suspected of killing her as well.
Denise Taylor Freeman had only recently married the gunman, but she and her son, Josh, had lived there for years, said Glenn Cradeur, who has owned his house, two down from hers, for 28 years. He said he believed the boy — of elementary school age — was not home when his mother was killed.
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