Pierre Part, LA: Restaurant shootout: man kills self after shooting ex-girlfriend dead, wounding armed patron

By Associated Press, Published: May 17
PIERRE PART, La. — A man shot and killed himself outside a south Louisiana seafood restaurant just minutes after killing his ex-girlfriend and getting into a shootout with a patron, authorities said Tuesday.

Assumption Parish Sheriff Mike Waguespack said the shooting began about 10:30 a.m. at Landry’s Seafood Restaurant, where the woman worked, in the unincorporated community of Pierre Part, about 50 miles west of New Orleans. Waguespack said Paul French, 51, shot and killed his ex-girlfriend, Michelle Borer, 42, after he walked into the restaurant and they began arguing.

“She appeared to have been shot multiple times,” the sheriff added.

A patron, who was armed and had a concealed gun permit, pulled out a handgun and began shooting at French, the sheriff said. The two exchanged gunfire before both went outside where French shot himself in the head. Waguespack said. He added that the patron was wounded by a shot to the abdomen.

Waguespack said both weapons were semi-automatic handguns but investigators were not releasing further details at this time.

French’s body was found in a yard beside the restaurant and Borer at the back door. Both were pronounced dead at the scene and the bodies were sent to a coroner’s office for autopsies.

The wounded patron was hospitalized in stable condition and “his injuries are not life threatening,” the sheriff said

Waguespack would not release the wounded man’s name, but said he acted to protect others and there were no plans to book the armed man who intervened.

“What he did was in the defense of others,” he said.

The sheriff said there were a few employees in the building and the armed patron “may have been the first of the day.”

No one else was hurt as the employees fled the building and called for help.

A call to the restaurant later Tuesday went unanswered. Waguespack said the business closed shortly after the shooting and he didn’t know when it would reopen.

Waguespack said French and Borer had a history of domestic problems and Borer had an active protective order against French. The sheriff said French had pleaded guilty to drug possession in 2007 and received a five-year suspended sentence.

Detectives with the sheriff’s office were investigating along with Louisiana State Police. The last homicide in the community was in 2008, authorities said, when a man beat his mother to death.