Corporal Shawn Kevin Kelly, 53, a 27-year veteran of the Denham Springs Police Department, was shot while responding to a disorderly subject call at Spring Park Plaza on the afternoon of May 11, 2023. Assigned to traffic duty, Kelly and another officer arrived as a man later identified as Justin Roberts, involved in a series of road rage incidents, opened fire from his vehicle; Kelly was struck multiple times and taken to a local hospital in critical condition.

Kelly fought his injuries for 22 days and the community organized blood drives and fundraisers, but he died of his wounds on June 2, 2023. Roberts fled the scene but was located shortly afterward by a Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputy; when approached Roberts was holding a gun and was shot and killed during that encounter. Reports connect Roberts to two other road rage incidents that occurred just before the shooting.

Anyone who witnessed the parking lot shooting or the earlier road rage incidents in Denham Springs on May 11, 2023, is asked to come forward with information.