Shaquille Guerin was a 35-year-old male, a veteran deputy with the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office who had spent more than eight years serving his community in various roles, including the uniform patrol division and the detective bureau. Colleagues and superiors consistently described him as a dedicated public servant with a positive attitude, someone who brought energy and professionalism to his shifts and support to his fellow officers.
Over the years he had taken on specialized training, including instruction on assisting autistic children and adults in crisis, and he had been among the deputies recognized at departmental banquets and ceremonies for life-saving efforts and community-oriented work. He was also a family man, remembered in statements from law enforcement agencies as a husband and father of three whose loss rippled far beyond the walls of the sheriff's office.
On the evening of Thursday, November 27, 2025, Jefferson Parish deputies were called to a report of gunfire in the 30 block of Marigold Lane, in the Waggaman area of Jefferson Parish on the west bank of the Mississippi River. When they arrived shortly after 5:30 p.m., they found Guerin lying in the street outside a home with at least one gunshot wound. First responders and deputies attempted emergency medical care at the scene, but despite those efforts he was pronounced dead there a short time later. Neighbors and family members were left confronting the immediate shock of a fatal shooting that had unfolded on what should have been a holiday evening, and Jefferson Parish authorities quickly secured the area, began canvassing for witnesses, and worked to identify who had fired the shots.
Investigators swiftly focused on Guerin's brother, 32-year-old Darius Guerin of Marrero, as the primary suspect. According to Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto, Darius left the scene in a vehicle that was quickly broadcast to surrounding agencies. Around 7 p.m., another deputy spotted the suspect vehicle near the intersection of Ames and Lapalco boulevards in Jefferson Parish. When the driver refused to stop, a pursuit began that continued south toward Lafitte, with multiple units involved as they tried to bring the vehicle safely to a halt.
The chase ended in the 100 block of Jean Lafitte Boulevard, where the vehicle finally came to a stop and the suspect fled on foot. Deputies chased him through the area and took him into custody after a short foot pursuit. Along the route where he ran, investigators later recovered a firearm believed to have been discarded during his attempt to escape. Once apprehended, Darius was transported to a Jefferson Parish lockup, where he was booked on a charge of second-degree murder in connection with his brother's death. Authorities have emphasized that the precise motive and sequence of events leading up to the shooting remain under investigation, and no detailed narrative of the moments before the gunfire has yet been released to the public. At this stage, Darius remains an accused suspect, presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted in court.
In the days following the killing, law enforcement agencies across Louisiana publicly mourned Guerin's death. St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre issued a statement recalling that “Shaquille did his job well” and describing him as a deputy with the heart of a public servant who brought positivity to his coworkers and to the community he served. Tributes from neighboring departments and community members underscored that his loss was felt on several levels at once: within his immediate family, among fellow deputies who had worked side by side with him on patrol and investigations, and throughout the parish where residents had come to know him as a steady presence in uniform. Even as Jefferson Parish detectives continue to piece together the full circumstances of the Thanksgiving shooting and prepare the case for prosecutors, the public portrait that has emerged of Shaquille Guerin is that of a career lawman whose life ended violently on a residential street in the same region where he had spent years trying to keep others safe.
