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Suspect who killed police officer, woman in Louisiana captured alive

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The suspect in the slayings of a police officer and a woman shot himself Friday after an hours-long standoff on a New Orleans bridge but is alive, a Louisiana state police spokesman said.

Trooper Dustin Dwight said the man identified as Sylvester Holt shot himself once in the chest Friday evening. Dwight said negotiators had been talking with Holt but he does not know what was said.

Holt was on a girder below and to the side of the bridge roadway when the shooting happened. Dwight said rescue workers were going down to get Holt. News outlets have reported that Holt has been brought back up.

The self-inflicted gunshot wound brought an end to a chaotic day that began with the early morning shooting death of Westwego Officer Michael Louviere, 26, and Simone Veal, 32, of Marrero.

According to witnesses, the shooter fired at Veal, then chased her car in his vehicle to an intersection where she hit a truck waiting at a light, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s spokesman John Fortunato said. Louviere, whose shift ended at 6 a.m. Friday, was on his way home after work when he spied the crash and stopped to help.

The man shot Louviere in the head, then ran around the car and shot Veal as she lay on the ground, Fortunato said. Fortunato didn’t know whether she’d been hit in the earlier shooting.

Fortunato identified Holt as a person of interest and suspect in the double shooting.

As authorities searched for Holt, police shut the Mississippi River bridge from New Orleans’ east bank to its west bank, causing traffic to back up for miles, because a man later identified as Holt was threatening to jump from it.

Helicopters circled the area as news crews and photographers watched intently.

Louviere was described as a dedicated family man with a strong work ethic; he was married and had a 1-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter, Fortunato said.

According to Westwego Police Chief Dwayne Munch, he was a rising star likely bound for a job at a larger agency.

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