Shooting Rampage Leaves Four Dead, Two Critically Injured Because Of Custody Battle

A Louisiana man in the midst of a custody battle with his ex-wife went after his former in-laws, an ex-boss who fired him and his current wife in a rampage that left three dead, before killing himself.

All three survivors remained hospitalized Friday, two of them in critical condition, Brennan Matherne, a spokesman for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office, said in an email.

“We are still investigating motive and trying to piece together the sequence of events along with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office,” he wrote.

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.

By: Cheston Catalano

Cheston Catalano is a Kentucky-based journalist whose work has been featured in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and the Clarksville Leaf Chronicle. He is a long-time contributor to Liberaland.