A man accused of stabbing three people and then shooting a police officer in Louisiana is now in police custody, authorities announced late on 26 August. The man allegedly barricaded himself in a grocery market in the small southwestern Louisiana town of Sunset.

The suspect, who was identified as 35-year-old Harrison Lee Wiley Jr, was captured by police after authorities fired tear gas and "C-gass" into the store and stormed the building, ABC News reported. Wiley was barricaded in the store and involved in a standoff with SWAT for more than two hours, CBS News reported.

"The suspect is in custody," St Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz told reporters. Guidroz said the violent incident is believed to have been caused by a domestic dispute in which "there were probably drugs involved."

The officer, identified as 51-year-old Henry Nelson, died from his injuries, Guidroz told reporters. According to CBS News, the sheriff said that one of the victims stabbed, 40-year-old Shameka Johnson, has died. The two other stabbing victims were identified as Johnson's 34-year-old sister Shirley Johnson and Wiley's wife, Courtney Jolivette Riley.

The two sisters stabbed by Wiley are the siblings of the mayor from the neighbouring Grand Coteau, NBC New York reported. Guidroz told reporters that Wiley was taken to hospital to be treated for burns and irritation from the gasses.

The Associated Press reported that Nelson is the second Louisiana police officer killed in the last four days and the fifth to be killed in four months. State Trooper Steven Vincent was shot on 23 August and died a day later. Shreveport Officer Thomas LaValley was killed on 5 August, New Orleans Police Officer Daryle Holloway on 20 June and New Orleans public housing police officer James Bennett Jr on 25 May.

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