Sheriff’s SWAT team trained in Parish Courthouse to be prepared for an emergency situation in a busy, public building

Several members of the St. Bernard Sheriff’s SWAT team descend a stairwell to the lobby in the Parish Courthouse during tactical training in a simulation involving one or more armed intruders.	Several SWAT team members look for an intruder in the darkened main courtroom, including checking behind the blinds of the large windows.
Wearing gas masks in a simulation of a possible gas attack, SWAT team members search an area in the Courthouse.	Walking with guns raised, SWAT team members check the hallway of an area of prisoner holding cells and search each cell for a possible intruder.
Using a shield, officers clear an upstairs hallway.	SWAT officers train their guns on the Courthouse lobby from the railing of the second-floor.

No one wants to think about an emergency situation such as gunmen in a busy, public building like the St. Bernard Parish Courthouse. But that is why the Sheriff’s SWAT team recently held tactical training there, to be prepared to respond in a worst case scenario, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

“In today’s environment, it’s crucial to be prepared for anything,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said, “and the best way to do that is to train, in this case walk through the Courthouse and practice tactics for a response.

“Of course, you hope you never have to deal with the kind of incidents that have happened in some parts of the country but you have no choice except to be ready.’’

The Courthouse, which reopened last year on West Bernard Highway, has been re-designed, including expanding some offices and eliminating others and adding prisoner holding cells downstairs.

I was necessary to re-train there, said Maj. Robert McNab, who heads the SWAT team and is commander of the sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Bureau.

Some of it involved tactical training in the large courtroom, the large stairwells, in corridors and in the area of prisoner holding cells.

It was the same way with parish schools, many of which were entirely re-built after Hurricane Katrina, Sheriff Pohlmann said. SWAT team officers needed to familiarize themselves with new school layouts, the sheriff said, and took the opportunity to do so in recent months,

“The summer break, with schools closed, was a good time to do this,’’ he said, in coordination with Superintendent of Schools Doris Voitier’s office.

As well as the SWAT training, numerous St. Bernard deputies from all divisions have attended active-shooter training exercises covering various types of situations, the sheriff emphasized.

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State Police Troop B Children’s Grant-A-Wish Foundation gives sheriff’s deputy’s son who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy a dream come true: a trip to Hawaii for the NFL Pro Bowl all-star game

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Clayten Burns and his wife, Michelle, who live in Arabi, say they wouldn’t have been able to give their 10-year-old son, Brogan, the dream come true that happened to him Tuesday.

But through the Louisiana State Police Troop B Children’s Grant-A-Wish Foundation, Brogran, who was diagnosed at age four with Duchenne Myscular Dystrophy – a disorder that involves rapidly worsening muscle weakness – will receive what any young football-crazy boy like he is would love.

Brogan and his family will get an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii in late January, which includes tickets to the NFL Pro Bowl all-star game and possibly the chance to meet players there.

With classmates at Arabi Elementary School and relatives including his parents and grandparents on hand, Brogan was honored in a ceremony at the school by State Police and former New Orleans Saint player and current team employee Michael Lewis who played in a Pro Bowl game himself. Sheriff James Pohlmann also attended.

Lewis said he enjoys doing such charitable work. “What better can you do than to help children?,’’ said Lewis, who sports a Saints 2009-10 Super Bowl ring he showed the children at Arabi Elementary and played in the 2003 Pro Bowl all-star game as a Saint.

Sheriff Pohlmann said he is happy for the family of Dep. Sheriff Clayten Burns, a 13-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, and hopes Brogan has the kind of fun the boy deserves.

The State Police Grant-A-Wish Foundation, started in Troop B of the New Orleans area in the late 1990s, enables children with a life-altering or life-threatening illness to fulfill a wish they would not otherwise be financially able to do.

“Oh my gosh,’’ Brogran’s mother, Michelle Burns, said about the excitement surrounding the trip since the family learned he had been chosen for the Grant-A-Wish program.

Brogran is a fifth-grader at Arabi Elementary, which he attends with his brother, Liam Burns, 7. He also has another brother, Peyton Ronquillo, 8.

“He is a big football fan’’ and loves to watch the New Orleans Saints, Brogan’s mother said. Given options of what type trip he would like, the boy chose the Pro Bowl all-star game in Hawaii, she said. “He said he wanted to do it.’’

Brogran, wearing a hat autographed for him by Michael Lewis and sitting next to his grandfather, retired Sheriff’s Deputy Earl Burns, said his favorite TV channel is the NFL Network. The boy also said he has seen the Pro Bowl all-star game on TV and wants to go in person.

Clayten Burns said the trip to Hawaii and everything including the tickets to the football game is something his family couldn’t have afforded themselves.

“He (Brogran) wouldn’t have had this opportunity,’’ without the State Police program, Burns said. The family sometimes travels to a medical center in Cincinnati for examination of the boy and they try to make the trip a time to also have some fun together, he said.

The parents have been involved in the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding research and raising awareness for the effort to end Duchenne, which occurs in about one of every 3,600 male infants.

They started what was called Brogan’s Run in 2011 as a fund-raiser for the national organization. “It’s all about trying to find a cure,’’ Clayten Burns said at the time. There is no known cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Treatment aims to control symptoms to maximize quality of life.

State Police Maj. Carl Saizan, a Chalmette native, former sheriff’s deputy and last year promoted State Police Region 1 Commander for the New Orleans, Baton Rouge and North Shore areas, founded the Grant-A-Wish program for Troop B in the late 1990s.

Early efforts at raising funds included several road races in St. Bernard Parish in which the Sheriff’s Office provided route security at no cost, said Maj. Saizan, who also attended the Brogan Burns event.

Today, he said, money is raised through various methods including a golf tournament and corporate sponsorships, including donations the last two years from the Valero Refinery at Meraux in St. Bernard Parish.

Last year, the program was able to help two children, Maj. Saizan said.

He said, “We have sent kids to New York, Disney World and once sent a St. Bernard Parish girl and her family to Europe before Hurricane Katrina.”

Maj. Saizan said the Grant-A-Wish program is gratifying. “It takes that financial burden off the family and gives them a chance to get away to have fun.” The boy or girl “gets a trip of a lifetime,’’ he said.

“It’s our way of giving back to the community.’’

He said he heard about Brogan and his family from someone at the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office and it was later decided to try to do something for the boy.

“We worked with the New Orleans Sports Foundation and the NFL to purchase the tickets” and make arrangements for a trip to the Pro Bowl game, he said.

Along with Maj. Saizan, others attending from State Police included Sgt. Chris Brown, Troop B Affiliate President for the Louisiana State Troopers Association; Lt. Ronnie Tardo and Trooper Arthur Laurent of Troop B and Trooper Andrew Pratt, of the Bureau of Investigation.

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Groups pleased with mock disaster drill held by ExxonMobil’s refinery, which included parish government and its Fire Department, S.B.S.O., St. Bernard Hospital and Prompt Succor School

Groups involved said they were pleased with a recent mock disaster drill held by the ExxonMobil Refinery in Chalmette, which included parish government and its Fire Department, the Sheriff’s Office, St. Bernard Hospital and Prompt Succor School.

“I thought it was a good community test,’’ Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone said. “It was a test for the refinery, the closest school which is Our Lady of Prompt Succor, the parish’s First Call system for notifying residents, the Sheriff’s Office and St. Bernard Hospital.’’

The drill showed “good cooperation between industry and government,’’ Stone said afterward, adding, “We are lucky’’ because that type of working together isn’t always true in other parishes.

Sheriff James Pohlmann said, “It’s important to practice for possible emergencies in St. Bernard Parish to make sure there is cooperation between groups before you might have to deal with the real thing. We were glad to take part.’’

Guy Swinford of Exxon Mobil, which hosted the drill, was in charge of refinery response, working in a command center and receiving reports from the field. Maj. Mark Poche of the Sheriff’s Office, Parish Government Homeland Security Director John Rahaim and Fire Department officials Deputy Chief Glenn Ellis, Kane Bruder and Mike Moolekamp were also in the center and talking to other personnel,

The emergency simulation involved a scenario of a two-vehicle accident within the plant, with a truck leaking hydro fluoric acid, which can cause chemical burns to lungs and skin burns. Immediate irrigation of eyes also is required. The driver of one truck needed to be de-contaminated and examined after the crash.

The Sheriff’s Office shut down intersections near the affected area of the drill nearest the plant in Chalmette and in a real emergency would use a public address system to tell residents to shelter in their homes or to evacuate.

Parish government used its First Call emergency notification system to notify about 400 residents within a ½-mile area outside the refinery about the drill, officials said. More than 300 of the calls, or about 80 percent, were delivered, they said.

St. Bernard Parish residents should enroll in the First Call system, parish government officials said, by going online to www.sbpg.net – the parish’s web site – to be notified about emergencies by cell phone and receive instructions on what to do. Or they can enroll by calling the parish Office of Emergency Preparedness at (504) 278-4268.

Information on land lines for homes and businesses is already in the parish’s 911 data base.

A shelter-in-place was called for residents instead of an evacuation.

The nearest school to the refinery, Our Lady of Prompt Succor School on Paris Road, took part and students there were instructed to shelter in place inside the building.

St. Bernard Hospital official Wayne Landry said he was pleased with the hospital’s response, saying such drills “keep our staff prepared for any disasters, spills or any other emergency situation.’’

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Four St. Bernard sheriff’s deputies graduate from Peace Officers Standards and Training Academy

Graduate Sgt. Jennifer Dassau with Maj. David DiMaggio when she receives her diploma

Graduate Brigette M. Circello shakes hands with Slidell Police Randy Smith and at left is Maj. David DiMaggio, holding her diploma.

Four St. Bernard Parish sheriff’s deputies, two who work in the Juvenile Detention Center, one in the Communications Division and one from the Reserve Division, were recently graduated from the Peace Officers Standards and Training, or P.O.S.T., academy held at the Slidell Regional Police Academy.

Graduating from St. Bernard were Sheriff’s Deputies Sgt. Jennifer Dassau of Communications, Brigette M. Circello and Lisa Thiel, both of the Juvenile Detention Center, and Chris Palazzalo of the Reserve Division.

The academy includes nearly 400 hours of training in basic and advanced police work as well as firearms training.

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Violet man booked in armed robbery of a man he knew and a woman who was with the victim booked as a principal to robbery for allegedly setting him up

Ireielle Lafrance, booked with principal to armed robbery for allegedly setting up the victim.

Jerome Gabriel, booked with armed robbery of a man he knew in St. Bernard Parish.

A 24-year-old Violet man has been booked with the Dec. 29 armed robbery of a man he knew and a 25-year-old woman who was with the victim when it happened was booked as a principal to robbery for allegedly setting him up, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

Jerome Gabriel was arrested Jan. 3 in Violet after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest following an investigation by sheriff’s detectives, Sheriff Pohlmann said. Gabriel was also booked with possession of a small amount of marijuana he had when he was found by sheriff’s deputies with the Street Crimes Division.

Ireielle Lafrance of Violet, who had been in a vehicle with the victim in Violet when he was forced out of it and robbed, was booked on one count of being a principal to armed robbery, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

The victim, who wasn’t injured, was robbed of a large amount of cash, the sheriff said, and reported that several men were involved, saying he could recognize Gabriel, whom he knew. The victim also said that when he was approached by the robbers the woman took his car keys so he couldn’t drive off, the sheriff said.

Both Gabriel and Lafrance have criminal histories that include previous arrests for drugs.

Gabriel is being held in St. Bernard Parish Prison in lieu of bond set at $250,000 while Lafrance is jailed in lieu of $100,000 bond.

Anyone with information about the other people involved in the robbery should call the Sheriff’s Office at (504) 271-2501 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111 and they could be eligible for a reward if a tip leads to an arrest.

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Elderly couple reported missing in St. Mary Parish found safe but disoriented and cold in their vehicle in St. Bernard Parish at 2 a.m. after running out of gas

An anonymous call to the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office just before 2 a.m. Friday about a man seen on the ground outside a vehicle was the key to authorities finding an elderly couple reported missing in St. Mary Parish, Sheriff James Pohlmann said.

“This was a fortunate ending to a serious situation of a missing elderly couple,’’ Sheriff Pohlmann said. “I’m glad someone called about this as soon as they saw something.’’

Felton and Marguerite Jones, both in the 80s and from the Jeanerette area, were found safe but disoriented and cold in a Jeep Commander which had run out of gas in the 5800 block of East St. Bernard Highway near a closed gas station in Violet, about six miles east of Chalmette.

The couple didn’t know where they were when approached by Sheriff’s Dep. Clayten Burns, who had been dispatched after the anonymous call about suspicious activity, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

The man, who had gotten back in the Jeep when the deputy arrived, and woman who was also inside were discovered to be reported missing in St. Mary Parish, the sheriff said. He said they were taken by ambulance to St. Bernard Parish Hospital for examination.

Their relatives were informed and were later reunited with the couple.

The family had alerted St. Mary Parish authorities on Thursday when they couldn’t locate the couple. The family had reported the couple planned a trip to New Orleans. Louisiana law enforcement agencies had been alerted about the missing pair.

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Deputies recover stolen truck in New Orleans after spotting it in St. Bernard but sheriff reminds residents not to leave autos running while they go in a store

An Arabi resident got his stolen truck back Thursday night, Jan. 2, when sheriff’s deputies quickly spotted it and followed the driver and passenger into New Orleans before the men jumped out and escaped.

But Sheriff James Pohlmann reminded residents the incident is an example of how quickly something bad can happen if you leave an auto running with the keys in the ignition and the doors unlocked while entering a store to buy just one item.

“Fortunately, no child was left inside, which would have made it much worse,’’ the sheriff said. “But it is a reminder to lock your doors and remove the keys before leaving a vehicle parked outside.’’

In the incident, an Arabi resident entered a Chalmette convenience store about 8:30 p.m. to buy milk and left the motor running on his unlocked pick-up truck because he felt he would only be a minute, Sheriff Pohlmann said. “But just that quickly two men jumped in and stole the vehicle. Once reported, our deputies quickly spotted the stolen truck and followed the driver and passenger into New Orleans but couldn’t apprehend them before they parked it on a lawn on a side street and ran away.’’

Deputies found the truck on Tennessee Street near North Robertson Avenue in New Orleans, the sheriff said. New Orleans Police also provided assistance, he said.

After evidence was gathered from the vehicle, it was released to the owner, who was brought to the scene, Sheriff Pohlmann said.

Nothing was reported stolen from the truck, but there was damage to a tail light, the owner reported.

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70-year-old Chalmette man surrenders in hit-and-run fatality early Sunday of Chalmette woman struck on shoulder of the road on West St. Bernard Highway

State Police said Harold Barrett, 70, of Chalmette, surrendered Wednesday morning and was arrested in the hit-and-run fatality early Sunday, Dec. 29, of a Chalmette woman struck and killed on the shoulder of West St. Bernard Highway.

Barrett, of 3400 Sinclair St., was wanted on an arrest warrant in the death of Donna Landry, 54, and surrendered at the St. Bernard Parish Prison just before 10 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Landry was killed as she walked the shoulder of the west-bound lanes of West St. Bernard Highway near Madison Street in Chalmette, early Sunday morning.

State Police booked Barrett with negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run and reckless operation. He will go before a magistrate judge on Monday to have bond set in the case.

The investigation is on-going at this time, State Police Troop B said.

Troopers located the vehicle involved in the hit and run fatality and said Barrett was driving a white 2002 Dodge pick-up on the night of the crash. The Louisiana State Police Crime Lab positively identified this vehicle as the vehicle that hit and killed Landry by matching evidence collected on the scene to the damage on the pick-up, state Police said.

The victim was found dead by a passing bicyclist about 5:30 a.m.

For unknown reasons, Barrett drove the vehicle onto the shoulder of the road and struck the pedestrian. The driver then fled and the woman was later pronounced dead on the scene.

Troopers were able to gather evidence from the vehicle at the scene.

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