Two juveniles were wounded — one critically — in a fracas that occurred about 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the 400 block of East Maple, according to Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot.
“During the fight guns were brought out and gunfire started,” Fontenot said. “Our two victims are a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old. One was treated and released from the hospital. The other one was flown to a Lafayette hospital and had surgery last night. The last I hard he was in critical, but stable condition.”
One of the wounded juveniles was from Eunice and the other was from Lake Charles, he said.
“We believe there were quite a few witnesses in the area,” Fontenot said.
“But as usual the public is not cooperative,” he said.
“Nobody was saying anything. We even have witnesses say, ‘Yeah, I was outside. I saw a bunch of kids running around. I heard gunshots, but I didn’t see anything.’”
Officers did obtain video and were able to identify many of the people involved, he said.
“And we also have video of some of the witnesses so we are going to be following up with that as well. They told us they didn’t see any thing, but they are in the video,” he said.
Fontenot said investigators are not certain about what the fight was about Thursday night.
“But we believe it was a carryover from a shooting that took place earlier this week where nobody was injured,” he said.
That shooting occurred on Scott Street near the St. Edmund football field.
There were no injuries in the earlier shooting, he said.
“Again, the same plea we always make,” Fontenot said, “We want to stop all of this. The police department cannot do it alone.”
In Thursday’s shooting incident, police had been in the area, but when they left, the shooting occurred.
“That quick it happened,” he said.
“We’ve been having extra officers out for this particular reason,” he said.