September 01, 2005

Guardsman shot, sex offender arrested at Superdome

By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer

NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana National Guardsman was shot in the leg at the Superdome, and a convicted sex offender was arrested on suspicion of attempted child abduction Wednesday night, military police told Army Times.

Soldiers with the Louisiana National Guard’s Special Reaction Team captured the gunman, who allegedly shot a soldier with A Company, 527th Military Police Battalion.

The wounded soldier was medical-evacuated by helicopter, according to Maj. Richard “Rich” Hanes, operations officer for the Guard’s 773rd Military Police Battalion. The injury is not believed to be life threatening. The reason for the shooting is unknown.

An SRT detachment chased the accused shooter into a flooded, pitch-dark area in a lower level of the dome. The arrest was made without any other shots fired.

The SRT also took the man accused of kidnapping into custody, said Staff Sgt. Richard Watson, the arresting soldier. Hanes said he was then turned over to New Orleans police.

The capture comes two days after rumors began circulating that a child molester was on the loose among the at least 15,000 New Orleans residents holed up at the dome, which the Guard is running as an emergency shelter.

A group of several civilians Wednesday night came to the SRT’s position in the dome and told them that they had just seen a man “inappropriately touch a child,” Watson said. While SRT was compiling a description, another group brought a man to the team saying he had tried to kidnap an infant.

“They told us he had touched one of their children in a sexual way,” Watson said. “They said we should take him before they take care of him.”

Watson said the man resisted arrest but was subdued within seconds.

The SRT is a group of military police soldiers who have all received extensive training in crowd control, weapons handling and general law enforcement. Since the shelter was established, they have constantly patrolled the Superdome and served as the Guard’s primary quick reaction force. They have broken up brawls inside the dome and pushed back crowds of residents trying to block routes for military vehicles outside the dome.

Almost every member of in the 120-man unit is mobilized, although only 70 are in New Orleans. The rest are deployed to Iraq as part of the 256th Brigade Combat Team.

Thats one lucky Soldier. Lucky to get the F out of there. I'll bet he was smiling the whole way out.

They could have made it sound like the guy who shot the gaurdsmen actually shot the molester in the head.

two birds with one stone

Quoted: why did they chase and arrest the shooter. he should have been shot in the head on the spot. there is no time for that shit in this crisis.

BIG + 1!!!