Deputy Sheriff Brandon Joseph Nielsen, 34, was shot and killed on August 16, 2012, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. Nielsen had about ten years of law enforcement experience and had served with the parish sheriff’s office for roughly a year in the traffic division. He was a husband and father of five.

The shooting began in the pre-dawn hours when an off-duty deputy was ambushed and shot while working a security detail. Deputies searching the area went to a LaPlace trailer park, where Nielsen, Deputy Jeremy Triche and a colleague stopped to question two men outside a mobile home. A third man emerged from the trailer armed with a semi-automatic rifle and opened fire, killing Nielsen and Triche.

Investigators arrested seven people in connection with the incident and identified Kyle David Joekel and Brian Lyn Smith as the shooters. Joekel was later convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Brian Lyn Smith was found mentally incompetent to stand trial and committed to a medical facility. Other suspects faced varying charges.

Did anyone in LaPlace at the time notice unusual activity near the trailer park that morning?