Louisiana State Police were investigating on Wednesday after a Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's deputy fatally shot a 14-year-old boy.
Louisiana State Police Trooper Evan Harrell said that deputies responded at around 6 p.m. on Tuesday to a 911 call alleging that armed individuals were seen running into an abandoned home in Houma's Village East neighborhood, The Time-Pacayune reported.
The first deputy to enter the home reportedly shot the boy. Harrell said that a weapon was found "in close proximity" to the dead body.
Harrell would not say where or how many times the boy was shot.
"The individual that was fatally wounded, his family, everybody deserves a proper investigation, and that's what we're here to do," Harrell insisted. "And until we get everything nailed down, squared away, we'll be out here as long as it takes."
The family of the boy, who was identified him as 14-year-old as Cameron Tillman, said that he was "shot four or five times in the back," according to WWLTV.
Tillman's brother, Andre, said that his brother heard a knock at the door of the abandoned home and opened it because he thought it was a joke.
"My little brother thought somebody was just clowning, because somebody is always clowning by the door," Andre Tillman recalled. "He opened [it] and the man just shot him. He didn't have nothing in his hand."
Tillman's aunt told WWLTV that her nephew would never have been holding a gun.
"He wouldn't even hold a BB gun," she said. "That's the type of kid he was. He wouldn't hold a BB gun, better yet, a water gun. But to have a real gun and apparently point it at a cop or something? No."
Michael Legarde, one of Cameron Tillman's teachers at Ellender High School, noted that the teen had taken off a year from playing sports to focus on his studies.
"He had heard all the hype about high school and just wanted to concentrate on his grades for the first year," Legarde said.
Harrell said that two juveniles and an 18 year old had been taken into custody following the shooting. Authorities were searching for a fifth person who was thought to have escaped through the back door of the abandoned home.
Officials had not released the name of the deputy involved in the shooting.
