Laplace homeowner shoots/kills intruder

quote:

---

LAPLACE -- Police say a homeowner fatally shot a man trying to break into his home in the middle of the night, but the dead man's family says there's no way he would hurt anyone.

Andrea Wilkins was shocked to hear her cousin had been shot to death last night.

"He was always joking and clowning with everybody," she said.

The St. John Parish Sheriff's Office says 27-year-old Kalvin Ferrygood tried to break into a home on the 3300 block of Cambridge Drive around 8 p.m. on Sept. 12.

"I think the mojo probably had him running, for him to wind up in somebody's yard, because he was living back here on Revere," Wilkins said.

Mojo is a type of synthetic marijuana that has been known to cause erratic behavior and sometimes death in people that use it.

Wilkins says she does not believe Ferrygood was trying to break in or hurt anyone, but the Sheriff says that's exactly what happened.

"He had to do what he had to protect himself and his family," Sheriff Mike Tregre said.

According to Tregre, the homeowner heard two voices in the back and went to the door to see what was happening in his yard. That's when he says Ferrygood forced his way into his home and the homeowner opened fire.

Deputies later found a gun in the backyard they believe belonged to one of the intruders.

The Sheriff's Office says there is video evidence of what happened. And according to police records, Ferrygood was arrested for shooting five people on Christmas Eve, 2008, at a nightclub in St. James Parish.

Ferrygood's cousin, Andrea Wilkins says he got out four months ago, but regardless of his past, she doesn't think he should have been shot.

"Because I don't really think he would try to break in," WIlkins said. "I would like to see the video."

"The homeowner -- from everything we've seen -- acted in self-defense, he was not arrested," Tregre said.

Investigators are currently working to identify a possible second subject

---