7 min read
Major Takeaways
- About 200 people marched through downtown Houma on Monday, demanding answers in two fatal shootings involving Terrebonne Parish deputies.
- Lionel Thomas died on Nov. 5 after a pursuit ended with his SUV in Bayou Terrebonne. His family says he was unarmed and trapped in the water.
- Jesiah Stegmann died on Sept. 27 after an encounter with deputies in Chauvin. His mother says six weeks have passed with no briefing and no explanation.
- Louisiana State Police are investigating both deaths, and organizers vow more peaceful protests until the families get answers.
Houma Families March to the Courthouse Square
The morning began with prayer. It ended with a promise that the marching is not over.
About 200 people gathered Monday at That Stanley Parking Lot in Houma, Louisiana. The crowd opened with prayer and a clear instruction to keep the march peaceful.
Reverend Wendell Shelby Wallace and Lacie Thomas led the group. People signed a petition calling for answers, and then the crowd started walking.
The march took about ten minutes to reach the courthouse square in downtown Houma. Signs rose above the crowd, and two chants carried down the street.
One chant was simple. Enough is enough. The other is one Black families have carried for generations. No justice, no peace.
Two families stood at the front of that crowd. Both buried a loved one after an encounter with Terrebonne Parish deputies, and both say silence is all they have received since.
The Morning Lionel Thomas Died
Lionel Thomas, known across Houma as Ham, died on Nov. 5. The shooting happened just before 11 a.m. on Louisiana Highway 24 near Henderson Street, close to Terrebonne High School.
Louisiana State Police say Thomas drove a 2021 BMW X3. He was the subject of an active multi agency narcotics investigation, and deputies tried to stop his vehicle.
State police say he refused to stop. He fled at a high rate of speed and ran through traffic signals on street after street across the city.
The pursuit ended when the SUV left the roadway and crashed into Bayou Terrebonne. One man was shot and pronounced dead at the scene, and no deputies were injured.
What state police have not explained is the shooting itself. The agency says the circumstances surrounding the shooting are still under investigation, and whether Thomas was armed remains an open question in that investigation.
People who watched from a nearby bridge saw deputies approach the vehicle in the water. Witnesses say deputies shouted at the driver to get out, and bystander video of the scene spread quickly across social media.
A Barber Who Gave His Last
In Houma, Thomas was not a case file. He was the barber who took care of people.
Connie Walker, 63, used to clean his barber shop on Mondays. She told the crowd he loved his three children and the New Orleans Pelicans, and that he would help anyone who needed it.
“He would give his last,” Walker said. “He was a sweet, sweet guy.”
Shakima Hawkins, 37, watched the shooting unfold from the bridge and recorded what she could. She remembered a man who cut hair for children heading back to school and never turned anyone away.
“If you didn’t have money, he cut your hair for free,” Hawkins said.
His sister Lacie started a public fundraiser to pay for an independent autopsy. The family says Thomas was unarmed and submerged in water when he was shot, and they want an examination they can trust.
One sign in the march said the quiet part out loud. A man cannot shoot or surrender while being submerged.
A Past Is Not a Death Sentence
Terrebonne Parish NAACP President Jerom Boykin told the crowd the vehicle sat immobilized in the bayou. He said Thomas had no gun and posed no threat once the SUV was stuck.
“They coulda backed off, he was no threat as far as a gun or anything like that,” Boykin said. “They knew who they were dealing with. They still could have got a warrant for his arrest.”
Thomas did have a past. He was arrested in 2018 and later pled guilty to charges involving drugs and guns, and nobody at the march hid from that fact.
Shelby Wallace said a record is not a verdict. He pointed to other serious cases in the area where deputies brought the suspect in alive, and he argued Thomas deserved the same chance to face a judge.
“It’s not a death sentence, and furthermore our law enforcement officers are not executors, they’re not judges, they don’t make those decisions,” Shelby Wallace said.
The sheriff office has pointed to the state police process. Public Information Officer Blake Tabor has said the completed investigation would bring facts to light, and that the office would accept whatever findings result.
Six Weeks of Silence for Jesiah Stegmann
The Thomas family is not waiting alone. The family of Jesiah Stegmann stood beside them at the courthouse, still carrying questions from September.
Stegmann, 29, of Raceland, died on Sept. 27 in Chauvin. State police say deputies became involved in a physical altercation with him, a deputy fired, and Stegmann died at the scene. One deputy suffered injuries that were not life threatening.
Friends remember an artist, a poet, a dancer and an athlete. His artwork filled a table at his memorial, where between 300 and 500 people gathered at Bethany Church in Houma on Oct. 3.
He had enrolled at Nicholls State University and was working toward becoming an art teacher. The night before he died, he was at his mother’s house in Raceland, helping his nieces paint pumpkins.
His mother, Stacey Stegmann, says more than six weeks have passed without a single briefing. The lack of information pushed her to tears at the courthouse.
“I would just like to get a briefing with Captain Frank Besson,” she said, naming the head of the Louisiana State Police. “I know we are asking for answers. I’d just like to know why we can’t get any.”
Her family has put the question as plainly as a grieving family can. If the deputy was justified, they say, then tell them the deputy was justified. Nobody will even tell them that.
What Accountability Looks Like From Here
Terrebonne Parish Council Chairman Brien Pledger stood before the crowd and made a public promise. He said supporting the families comes first, and due process comes with it.
“I am going to be at the forefront to make sure we are held accountable for our actions,” Pledger said. “We are going to get justice, either way it goes.”
Organizers say Thomas and Stegmann are two of three documented incidents in the parish, and one of those cases has waited more than a year for answers. That is why the leaders at the courthouse framed this as a pattern, not a single tragedy.
The demand travels well beyond Terrebonne Parish. From a campus in Mississippi forced to answer for a racist video to a Houston courtroom where a former detective was sentenced to federal prison, Black families keep asking institutions the same question. Who answers when the system takes a life?
Louisiana State Police detectives are investigating both Terrebonne Parish shootings. The agency asks anyone with photos or video to share them with detectives or call its hotline at 1 800 434 8007.
Asked where the two investigations stand, state police have not given the families or reporters an answer. That silence is now the story, and the marchers say it will keep producing marches.
“Until we get answers, there will be many more peaceful protests,” Shelby Wallace said. “Enough is enough.”
Follow continuing coverage of this story and the stories shaping Black Louisiana at Urban City Podcast.
