Deputy's bullet fatally pierced back of man's neck in shooting: autopsy

PORT ALLEN – Josef Richardson, the man shot by a West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s deputy last week, died when the bullet pierced the back of his neck and severed part of his spinal cord, an autopsy showed.

The report, released Tuesday afternoon to the family, confirms what WBRZ reported Friday from sources – that Richardson had been shot in the back of the neck. Authorities investigating have refused to confirm or provide additional details for days.

The autopsy showed there was a severe injury to the base of Richardson’s skull.


Richardson, the autopsy found, died from the single gunshot.

The gunshot was fired by a West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s deputy who, investigators have said, was conducting a search warrant at a roadside motel along US 190 northwest of Port Allen Thursday evening. Neither the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office nor State Police – the agency now investigating – have released specific details of the search warrant.

Jessica Clouatre, a woman in the hotel room at the time of the incident, was arrested and held until Monday night on drug charges related to an “investigation,” deputies wrote in a vague report about her arrest. The arrest report was not released for four days.