Suspect in Marshal’s Death Dies

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – The murder suspect accused of killing a deputy U.S. marshal in a shootout died Wednesday, an official with a Louisiana coroner’s office said.

Jamie D. Croom, 31, was wounded multiple times Tuesday in the shootout with a task force led by federal marshals on the outskirts of Baton Rouge.

Croom was pronounced dead about 12:45 a.m. Wednesday, Shane Evans, chief of investigations for the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office, told The Associated Press.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Josie Wells died while trying to arrest Croom, wanted in the slayings of a brother and sister outside a nightclub about 20 miles away in New Roads.

Wells, 27, was assigned to an office in Mississippi.

Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Beauregard Torres III said Croom faced two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Lechelle Rita Williams, 42, and her brother Sinica Lee Williams, 38.

Croom, a resident of New Roads, had a long criminal record, Torres said.

Torres said Tuesday that investigators had not established a motive in the shootings of the siblings.