62-year-old on birthday trip is killed helping his wife escape carjacking, cops say

Bailey Aldridge
·2 min read
7

A husband on a birthday trip with his wife was fatally shot helping her escape a carjacking, Louisiana officials said.

Paul Holt, a 62-year-old from Arkansas, and his wife were getting in their SUV outside of a Red Roof Plus hotel in Hammond, Louisiana, the morning of Saturday, May 6, when “an armed, masked” man got into their vehicle and tried to take off with the wife in the passenger seat, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

Holt tried to stop the man, later identified as 18-year-old Ladarrius Evans, and managed to help his wife escape the SUV. As Holt was helping her, Evans shot him in the chest and drove off in the SUV, according to the sheriff’s office.

Deputies responded just before 8 a.m., and Holt was taken to a hospital, where he died, the sheriff’s office said.

Holt would’ve turned 63 on Sunday, May 7, according to the sheriff’s office.

Investigators found the stolen SUV later on May 6 and were able to “develop Evans as the suspect,” the sheriff’s office said. He was found with weapons and the victims’ belongings and “confessed to the crime.”

Evans, who lives in Hammond, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, carjacking, possession of an unidentifiable firearm, armed robbery with a firearm and possession of a machine gun, the sheriff’s office said.

He has been booked in the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, according to the sheriff’s office. Records did not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

A spokesperson for Red Roof told McClatchy News on May 7 that the company could not comment on an active criminal investigation.

Hammond is about 50 miles east of Baton Rouge.

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