Police: 4 dead after La. shootings, 3 injured

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http://bigstory.ap.org/article/police-4-dead-south-la-shootings-2-injured

LOCKPORT, La. (AP) — A nurse embroiled in a custody fight with his ex-wife attacked his former in-laws, his onetime boss at a hospital that fired him and his current wife in a rampage that spanned two parishes in Louisiana, leaving three dead before killing himself, authorities said.

All 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 still 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 (pronounced "go") 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.

Susan — "Pixie" to her friends — was a teachers' aide at Holy Savior Elementary School. She also was a talented needlewoman and knitter who designed the state bicentennial quilt square for Lafourche Parish and made scarves for all her friends, Parish President Charlotte Randolph said in a telephone interview.

She said that she went to school at one time or another with both Philip and Susan Gouaux, and that Susan Gouaux taught her grandchildren. The couple has six adult daughters.

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 (http://bit.ly/1cEpgEk) reported. Freeman was divorced from Gouaux's daughter Jeanne, whom he married in 1997.

Jeanne (ZHANNE) 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, said Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre. 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.