Louisiana news briefs

12 new West Nile virus infections
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana’s health department says 12 new West Nile virus infections in the state bring the year’s total to 92.
Three of the cases diagnosed this week are dangerous infections of the nervous system, bringing that total to 41. The state already had surpassed last year’s total of 34.
All three of those neuroinvasive infections are in East Baton Rouge Parish, where two patients diagnosed with flu-like West Nile fever and one without symptoms are located.
A health department news release says Caddo Parish also has two cases of West Nile fever, while Livingston, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes have one each. A second infection without symptoms was diagnosed in Iberville Parish.
A total of 36 fever cases and 15 without symptoms have been diagnosed this year.
Those are unlikely to reflect real totals.
Many people with flu-like symptoms don’t get tested for the virus, and asymptomatic cases are found only when blood tests are made for other reasons, such as blood donations.

State seeks
to reverse federal judge’s ruling
BATON ROUGE (AP) — State officials are asking a federal appellate court to reverse the judge’s finding that hot conditions at the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s death row are unconstitutional.
In a filing with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, attorneys for the state Department of Corrections argue that there is no basis in law for Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson’s order that heat indexes on death row — how hot it actually feels — not top 88 degrees from April through October.
State officials claim the judge’s ruling and order effectively requires the state to install an “extensive and expensive” air conditioning unit or some other humidity-controlling device, something no court has ever mandated.
Attorneys for three Louisiana condemned killers have until Sept. 23 to enter their response.

1 man killed in LaPlace shooting
LAPLACE (AP) — St. John the Baptist Parish sheriff’s deputies are investigating a fatal shooting that took place in LaPlace.
Deputies say the shooting happened around 12:35 a.m. Sunday.
Authorities found 33-year-old Ian Robertson of Lutcher with a gunshot wound.
Robertson was taken by ambulance to River Parish Hospital where he died a short time later.
Authorities say they have no suspects or motive for the homicide.

Man killed
in bar shooting
PAINCOURTVILLE (AP) — Assumption Parish sheriff’s deputies say a 33-year-old man died after he was shot in the parking lot of a bar over the weekend.
Sheriff Mike Waguespack said the suspected shooter, 25-year-old Matthew Jordan III, turned himself in to deputies several hours after the victim, Franky Joseph, of Donaldsonville, died.
Waguespack says the shooting occurred early Sunday morning when Joseph and Jordan got into a fight at the Alexis Sports Bar on La. Highway 308 near Paincourtville.
The sheriff says Joseph was shot once in the abdomen.
He says Joseph was taken to Our Lady of the Lake Assumption Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Jordan was booked with second-degree murder.

New Orleans police arrest man in officer shooting
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans police have charged a man with attempted first degree murder, saying he admitted involvement in the shooting of a police officer early Sunday morning.
Cornelius Barthelemy, 34, was arrested after police in suburban Gretna responded to a call about a dead body about 8 a.m. Sunday.
Inside a Ford Expedition they found an unidentified man who died from a single gunshot wound to the abdomen. Police found Barthelemy, who was shot once in the torso, inside an apartment complex where the SUV was found.
Gretna police concluded the Ford matched one seen in surveillance video at a New Orleans restaurant where Officer Jonathan Smith had been shot about 1:40 a.m. Sunday. Smith, a 44-year-old who has been a police officer for four years, was working as a security guard at the restaurant.
Security video shows the shooter and another man exited a Ford sport utility vehicle and approached the restaurant on Elysian Fields Avenue about 1:40 a.m.
From The Associated Press.
One of the men took out a gun and began shooting at Smith, who was working as a security guard.
Smith was hit three times — in the thigh, the buttocks and lower back. He remained hospitalized Sunday.
Smith shot back, though. The video shows the pair running back to the vehicle. One man falls, as if hit, then limps into the vehicle before a third man drives it away.
While being treated at a hospital, Barthelemy told police he was one of three men shown the video. New Orleans police say they’re not sure if Barthelemy was the gunman or not.
After being released from a hospital, Barthelemy was booked into jail. Police say they’re trying to identify the body and are looking for a third man who drove the Ford. Barthelemy identified the men only by their nicknames — “Caesar” for the dead man and “Renegade” for the driver.

Tree limb falls
on motorcyclists, killing 1
FRENCH SETTLEMENT (AP) — State police said one motorcyclist was killed and another was injured when a tree limb fell and struck them while they were riding near French Settlement.
Trooper Jared Sandifer says 53-year-old Travis Lessard was riding a Harley Davidson alongside his brother, 52-year-old Joseph Lessard on La. 22 Sunday afternoon when the limb fell.
Sandifer says Travis Lessard, of Gonzales, was pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Gonzales while Joseph Lessard, of Maurepas, was taken to a Baton Rouge Hospital with serious injuries.
He says both riders were wearing their helmets.