Father kills 1-year-old daughter, himself following police chase

ST. JAMES PARISH, La. ( WAFB /Gray News) - A man and a young child are dead following a police pursuit in Louisiana, according to investigators.

Investigators say a man killed himself and his young child after leading police on a pursuit that began in Gonzales and ended in a cemetery in St. James Parish.

As the pursuit ended, the 23-year-old man reportedly shot himself and his 1-year-old daughter. The child died on the scene. The man was transported to a hospital and listed in critical condition, but later died due to his injuries.

According to the St. James Parish Sheriff's Office, the original call came in around 2 p.m. Deputies were requested at a home in Paulina while the man retrieved his belongings, but the man did not show up to get them.

A woman called the sheriff's office back about an hour and 40 minutes later requesting a deputy come back to the home.

When deputies arrived the second time, the woman requested a welfare check on the man and their child who were traveling in a vehicle in an unknown area.

Around 5 p.m., deputies with the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office spotted the man, near Highway 44 and Interstate 10, after getting a call from the child's mother who was tracking the vehicle. The mother had received the earlier threats from the man about harming himself and the child, investigators said.

Ascension Parish deputies and officers from the Gonzales Police Department began to pursue the vehicle.

The pursuit eventually entered St. James Parish where the male driver then allegedly pulled into a cemetery and fired the shots.

Louisiana State Police are leading the investigation into the incident, at the request of the St. James Parish Sheriff's Office.

The names of the driver and his daughter have not been released.