Shreveport, LA: Med Student, Ex-Girlfriend Dead in Murder-Suicide

Victim Had Obtained Protective Order Against Him


Man Kills Ex-Girlfriend Shoots Himself

A former medical student shot and killed his ex-girlfriend outside an east Shreveport fitness center on Thursday, then fatally shot himself minutes later as police moved in to arrest him at an intersection a few miles away.
The victim was identified as 29-year-old Kristin Renee Leonard of Shreveport, a nurse at Christus Schumpert hospital. Friends said Leonard had planned to do post-graduate studies.
Authorities said Leonard died at the hands of 31-year-old Josh Miyagi, a third-year medical student at LSU in Shreveport who had taken a leave of absence from the school. Miyagi died at LSU Hospital late Thursday afternoon of a gunshot wound to the head, the coroner said.
Friends and a family member said the couple had once lived together but things between them had deteriorated after their break-up. He had been harassing her at her apartment and at the gym, Leonard said in obtaining a protective order last fall that ordered Miyagi to have no contact with her.
"I am scared of him because he has guns," Leonard wrote in her request for the protective order. "He's furious because I left him and I'm unsure of what he's going to do to me."
Police searched Miyagi's apartment at Quail Creek on Thursday evening and seized a gun and a bulletproof vest. Officers said they found windows and one inside door barricaded.
Thursday's shooting happened about 12:45 p.m. on Quail Creek Road outside Element Fitness. A witness said Leonard was shot as she left the fitness center.
Leonard had been working out with friends and her current boyfriend and was walking to her car when she was confronted, a second witness said. They argued and Leonard was shot several times. The shooter then walked toward his car, got it in and left, the witness said.
Police got a description of the gunman's silver subcompact car. He left Quail Creek and headed headed west on Shreveport-Barksdale Highway.
He was at a stoplight at Kings and Barrett Street eight minutes later when officers spotted the car. They were ordering him out of the car when he picked up a gun and shot himself, police said.