A Louisiana man went on a shooting rampage on Thursday, killing his wife, former mother-in-law, and an old colleague before taking his own life, the New York Daily News reported.
Ben Edward Freeman, 38, began the deadly rampage at the home of Lafourche Parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux and his wife, Susan, shooting them both close to 7 p.m. Andrea Gouaux, his ex-wife, was also injured in the shooting according to authorities.
Though Susan died before first responders arrived, her husband and daughter survived and were transported to University Hospital, where they are listed in critical condition.
"Clearly, there has been a very difficult and complicated divorce/custody issue going on," Lafourche Parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux said in a news conference on Thursday.
Only 20 minutes after he terrorized the Gouaux home, Freeman traveled to home of Milton Bourgeois, CEO of Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital. Freeman fatally shot the hospital CEO. Though Bourgeois' wife, Ann, was also shot, she survived the attack.
Once authorities were able to identify Freeman as the shooter, they immediately swarmed his house in Houma, only to find his wife, Denise, dead in a bathtub. Her cause of death was not immediately known.
According to a report by WDSU, the Freemans had a history of domestic violence, causing courts to issue at least two protective orders, one of which expired last month. The station also reported that Mr. Freeman was ordered to have supervised visits with his children.
Police eventually discovered Freeman dead in his car along U.S. Highway 90, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Authorities said the shotgun they found with him was the one used in each shooting.
