Wrong place. Wrong time. That is all it took for 50-year-old Patricia Shepard to die in a metal-shredding hail of gunfire at a Louisiana gas station. Gunmen unleashed between 70 and 80 rounds into a parked car early Thursday morning, apparently convinced their mark was sitting inside. They were dead wrong.
The actual target had already slipped away. According to Hammond Police Chief Edwin Bergeron Jr., the shooters had been stalking the vehicle earlier at a nearby farm. The intended victim was in the car at one point but got out to ride with someone else. A simple twist of fate. The car drove off, completely unaware of the tail.
It stopped at a Chevron station. The driver walked inside. That is when the trap sprung. A stolen white 2008 Honda Civic pulled up alongside the target vehicle. The shooters did not hesitate. They just opened fire.
Shepard was just sitting there. She never stood a chance. “Absolute innocent victim,” Bergeron told reporters, holding back none of his disgust. “She was not involved.” The chief called the killers “scumbags” and vowed his department would not rest until they were behind bars. Talk is cheap, but the rage in the room was real.
Now, the hunt is on for two or three shooters. They fled the scene in that stolen Civic, which was taken from Pike County, Mississippi, on Tuesday. It sports Mississippi plate PJY050 and is missing its front passenger window.
Got a lead? Call the Hammond Police Department at 985-277-5755. Or stay quiet and call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-554-5245. Someone knows who pulled those triggers.
