Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana State Police is wrapping up its investigation of a mentally ill man's fatal shooting during a confrontation in December with St. Martin Parish sheriff's deputies.
State Police Major Doug Cain said Wednesday that investigators expect to turn over their findings to the local district attorney's office next week.
Michael Noel's relatives recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit in state court against St. Martin Parish Sheriff Ronald Theriot and the two deputies involved in the deadly encounter.
Their suit claims Noel's shooting was unprovoked and the result of poor training and supervision by the sheriff's office.
Noel's mother, Barbara Noel, and aunt, Sable Alex, have said the 32-year-old wasn't armed and wasn't a threat to the deputies who were trying to take him into protective custody so he could be involuntarily treated at a Lafayette hospital.
Authorities haven't named the deputies involved in the Dec. 21 shooting. Major Ginny Higgins, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, said she couldn't comment on the suit due to the ongoing Louisiana State Police investigation.
The lawsuit — filed March 22 on behalf of Noel's mother, his ex-girlfriend and their three children — says a deputy shocked Noel with a stun gun twice before fatally shooting him inside his home.
Michael Noel had paranoid schizophrenia and had been grappling with his mental illness since he was a child, according to his mother. The day of the shooting marked the fourth time in less than eight months that Barbara Noel had obtained an order for deputies to take her son into protective custody so he could get treatment.
On Dec. 14, a week before the shooting, a deputy responded to a "mental complaint" at the Noel family's home and spoke to Michael, who said he "speaks to Jesus Christ," an incident report says. The report says the matter was referred to the sheriff's Crisis Intervention Team.
The lawsuit claims it was "reasonably foreseeable" that the deadly confrontation would occur given what happened on Dec. 14.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
