Baton Rouge Police are remaining tight-lipped this morning as they continue their investigation into the fatal shooting of a 61-year-old man in the parking lot of Acadian Village Shopping Center early Saturday evening.
But sources familiar with the incident say police are investigating reports that the victim in the shooting, who has been identified as Danny Buckley, was panhandling in the parking lot of the popular retail center and that the shooter fired in self-defense because he and his wife felt threatened by Buckley.
BRPD spokesman Sgt. Don Coppola will say only that the shooting followed an “altercation” and that “the victim’s background remains part of this ongoing investigation.”
District Attorney Hillar Moore says he also has been told the shooting followed a panhandling incident, but he does not have any firsthand information and he has not been contacted by the BRPD about bringing formal charges.
Some tenants of Acadian Village, who were not authorized to speak on the record, say Buckley had panhandled in the parking lot of the shopping center in the past, though he more frequently hung out at the adjacent Shell station and Circle K.
Calls to the convenience store were not answered.
They also say security had been called Saturday evening, prior to the shooting, but that the shopping center’s security officer did not arrive before shots were fired.
An administrator at Weiser Security, which represents Acadian Village, declined to comment.
Other tenants, however, were unaware of any panhandling issues at the shopping center and were stunned to learn of the shooting, which happened during daylight in a crowded parking lot full of eyewitnesses.
“I was really surprised,” says Rock Rockenbaugh, who owns Kean’s dry cleaners on the opposite side of the strip center from where the shooting occurred. “We didn’t know about it and have not had any problems like that. But we face out to Acadian, so maybe closer to Perkins it’s a different story.”
While investigators continue to piece together what happened, the incident has not appeared to impact business at the usually crowded shopping center.
La Divina Café did a brisk business Sunday, according to employee Brennan Haggard, who says that while customers have been curious about what happened, they haven’t been scared off.
“It hasn’t seemed to have any effect on us,” Haggard says. “Trader Joe’s doesn’t appear to have been super affected either.”
A manager at Trader Joe’s, the store nearest where the shooting took place, declined to comment on the incident but indicated that business has been brisk, especially with bad weather approaching.
“We’re doing our best to meet our customers’ needs,” she says.
