Man fatally shot on Centenary College campus identified

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Shreveport police have released the name of the man fatally shot by campus police at Centenary College early Thursday evening, after he reportedly pulled a gun on them.

Authorities now identify 35-year old Charles Marcus McCauley of Shreveport as the person who came to Hamilton Hall, the main administration building at Centenary College.  We're told he went to the second floor looking for help of some kind at about 4:30 in the afternoon on Thursday, November 20.

Centenary College President Doctor David Rowe, who rushed home from an out-of-state conference after word came of the shooting, explained what happened next, when McCauley reached  the second floor.  "He appeared to be emotionally distraught and was looking for somebody to counsel him or comfort him."

Rowe said staff members called campus police when McCauley began acting suspiciously.  "The staff that met with him actually eventually persuaded him to leave the building and that's when the department of public safety encountered him outside of this building," added Rowe.  Rowe said McCauley was on the second floor about 45-minutes before leaving.

According to a statement released by Centenary College, once McCauley had left the building staff members were able to tell campus police that he had a handgun.  When two officers tried to stop him, the statement says he raised his firearm at the officers.  That's when one of the officers shot McCauley.

Corporal Marcus Hines elaborated on the confrontation, saying the officers and McCauley were involved in some sort of physical confrontation or 'scuffle' before the officer fired his weapon:

Cpl. Marcus Hines/Shreveport Police Department:  "We do believe he was shot at least twice."
Reporter:  "Where?"
Cpl. Hines:  "In the upper body."

Medics rushed McCauley to University Health Hospital with life-threatening injuries, where he was pronounced dead.  No students, staff or faculty were involved or injured.  One of the officers involved reported a minor injury and was treated at the scene by Shreveport Fire Department personnel.

As for whether it is a justified shooting by the Centenary College Police officer, Cpl Hines added, "That investigative part is still ongoing.  So, before we say whether some did or didn't do anything, we like to have all that information in place."

When it comes proper procedures when someone pulls a gun on a police officer, Corporal Hines concluded:  "There's no cookie-cutter answer when you talk about stuff like that.  But, it's never a good idea to pull an officer, a gun, on any police officer for that matter."

Cpl. Hines later verified with detectives that McCauley's weapon was a loaded, semi-automatic handgun and that extra ammunition was found in his pockets.  The Centenary officer who fired the fatal shots is now on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Police say McCauley had no apparent links to Centenary College.  But court records indicate McCauley had lived, at least two years ago, just a block from the campus.

In fact, court records show that McCauley was convicted of resisting an officer by force or violence in connection with an incident involving Shreveport police in January 2012. He was sentenced to serve two years at hard labor.

According to the court's ruling rejecting his appeal on that conviction, McCauley's criminal history began in 1996 and continued through the charge in 2012, and included such crimes as resisting an officer, simple burglary, possession of drug paraphernalia, cyberstalking, disturbing the peace and carrying illegal weapons.

In 2011, McCauley was investigated for threatening to kill employees of the Louisiana Department of Child and Family Services. For this crime, he was charged with threatening a public official. McCauley plead guilty to that misdemeanor offense and was ordered to pay a fine and court costs.

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