A Christmas weekend hunting trip in Baton Rouge turned tragic on Saturday, December 23, 2023, resulting in the death of Jacob Altazan, a 34-year-old White man. He was deer hunting with two other men in an area off Scenic Highway when he was fatally shot. Police were dispatched to the scene around 4:20 p.m. and found that Altazan had died from his injuries.
The shooter was identified as 54-year-old Thomas Franklin, a member of the hunting party.
According to police, Franklin stated that he accidentally shot Altazan, mistaking him for a deer. The Baton Rouge Police Department arrested Franklin and booked him into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a charge of negligent homicide. He was released on Christmas Day after posting a $10,000 bond.
The investigation uncovered conflicting accounts regarding whether the hunters were wearing required safety gear. Franklin told investigators that no one in the group was wearing their hunter's orange vests at the time of the incident. However, a friend of Altazan's, David Doucet, provided security camera footage to the media that appeared to show Altazan wearing orange safety gear at 3 p.m., about an hour before he was killed. Doucet, who described Altazan as a knowledgeable and safety-conscious sportsman, expressed doubt that the experienced hunter would have removed his vest.
A third hunter who was with the group told Doucet that he heard a gunshot and then screaming. When he reached the location, he said Franklin was standing with the gun and stated, "it accidentally went off" and "he's dead." Following the police investigation, the case was presented to an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury. In August 2024, the grand jury pretermitted the case, which means they declined to indict Franklin on the negligent homicide charge.
As of the grand jury's decision in August 2024, the case is considered unsolved.
