SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) -
The Caddo Parish Coroner's Office says its preliminary autopsy indicates that the man shot by a Shreveport Police officer late Thursday night was shot in the back.
Shreveport Police say patrol officer Corporal Bryan Lauzon was working an off-duty security job at the Fair Park Terrace Apartments at Mertis Avenue in Queensborough when he spotted a man on a bicycle coming from an area where there had been reports of narcotics activity.
According to Shreveport Police, Officer Lauzon, in full uniform and driving a marked patrol unit, attempted to stop and question the man, later identified as 44-year-old Michael Gilyard. Police say Gilyard began fighting with the officer when he discovered a handgun concealed in his pants. In the struggle that followed, Gilyard allegedly went for the officer's handgun, prompting Lauzon to fire three shots, striking him once.
Gilyard was later pronounced dead at LSU Hospital.
In a brief statement released Friday afternoon, Dr. Todd Thoma says the preliminary autopsy findings reveal Mr. Gilyard's cause of death to be a single gunshot wound to the chest, and that the trajectory was determined to be back to front.
Further investigation, including toxicology screening is pending.
Detectives and crime scene investigators were called to the scene, and police say they found a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun and about $8,000 in cash, along with just over three grams of suspected crack cocaine and about 16 grams of suspected marijuana, all of which they believe was concealed on the Gilyard's person at the time he was stopped by the officer.
Shreveport police say their investigation is continuing, and the findings will be turned over to the Caddo Parish District Attorney's Office for review.
For their part, the suspect's family is convinced that deadly force was not necessary. "He was walking away," says Gilyard's mother, Zenobia Rose. "For him to get shot in the back, that's not justifiable." "Why would you shoot somebody in the back. He was trying to kill him because he shot him more than one time."
Corporal Lauzon has been placed on administrative leave, per departmental policy. Lauzon was hired by the department in March of 2005. According to the Shreveport Police Department web site, Lauzon was Rookie of the Year in 2007.
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Michael Gilyard, 44 (Courtesy: Gilyard family)
SPD Cpl. Bryan Lauzon
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