ARNAUDVILLE, La. (KLFY) — A fatal shooting occurred over Labor Day weekend, marks the town of Arnaudville’s first homicide in three years, according to police chief Josh Ross.

Hayden Boudreaux, 22, is accused of second-degree murder after allegedly shooting Nathan Powell, 31. 

Police said the incident took place at Tiger Touchdown, a popular store on Main Street known as “Butch’s”, where a fight in the video poker room escalated into gunfire.

He said Powell was shot in the neck with one of the bullets and later died at the hospital.

“I’ve been the chief of police now for three years and we’ve had no homicides, from what I gather, there’s only been one other in the town’s history that I’m aware of which was years ago before my time,” said Ross.

Ross noted that the shooter and the victim were acquaintances, and there was known tension between them.

“It wasn’t random. There was some tension between the two gentlemen but it wasn’t random.  They were acquaintances at best,” he said.

The shooting was reported to the Arnaudville Police Department at approximately 6:30 p.m. on August 30. According to Ross, Boudreaux entered the video poker room at around 6:27 p.m., and after a brief altercation, he fired two shots, one of which struck Powell.

Police were able to track Boudreaux to his home, where he was arrested. Boudreaux was charged with second-degree murder and booked into a St. Landry Parish jail. Ross emphasized the senseless nature of the violence, noting that both families have lost a son.

“There continues to be an increase in violence, not only within St. Landry Parish, but across the state and the country as a whole, a lot of times involving young guys with guns, young shooters. Our advice would be to put the guns down. It’s a senseless act of violence. These are two young men, one in his 20s, one in his early 30s who had a whole life ahead of themselves and both families at this point ended up losing a son in a sense,” he said.  

The investigation in the shooting is ongoing, and police are urging anyone with additional information to come forward.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KLFY. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KLFY staff before being published.

Latest news