Officials Baffled By Death
Times Picayune  08-29-1996

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A few hours before New Orleans area State Trooper David Seymour was shot to
death during a Tuesday afternoon training exercise in Baton Rouge, the gun
that fired the fatal shot was checked to make sure it was not loaded, a State
Police spokesman said Wednesday.

The training exercise - simulation of a high-risk traffic stop involving
felons - was interrupted by rain and then resumed after about an hour.

Live ammunition was not meant to be part of the exercise, but, at about 5
p.m., Trooper Lee Lewis, an instructor at the State Police Training Facility,
fired his .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun and hit Seymour in the left upper
chest, State Police spokesman Trevor Smith said.

Seymour died shortly afterward at Baton Rouge General Medical Center.

That much is clear, East Baton Rouge Attorney Doug Moreau said Wednesday. What
concerns his investigators, Moreau said, is how and why it happened.

Seymour, 28, a Jefferson Parish resident who worked as a probation and parole
officer in New Orleans, had only recently taken on additional duties as a
trainer at the academy.

Lewis, 30, who has been a trooper about four years and moved to the academy
less than a year ago, voluntarily took an indefinite leave after the shooting,
Smith said, adding that this is the only fatality in the 12-year history of
the academy.

One hypothesis is that, during the break in the exercise, Lewis loaded his gun
with live bullets, Moreau said, "but I don't know that for a fact."

It also is unclear whether the exercise was meant to involve empty weapons,
blanks or plastic rounds, Smith said. Live ammunition is to be used only at
the State Police pistol range in Walker.

The exercise mimicked a traffic stop by law enforcement officers in which
several felons were found to be in a car, Smith said. He did not know what
roles Seymour and Lewis had assumed in the simulation.

The 36 people in training were from several law enforcement agencies,
including the Division of Probation and Parole, Smith said.

Morris Easley of Baton Rouge, director of the division, said he knew Seymour
"and he was a very fine individual." In addition to being a probation and
parole officer for five years, stationed in the division's St. Charles Avenue
office, Seymour recently had become a training officer, Easley said. He
assisted in safety education for fellow officers around Louisiana.

East Baton Rouge deputy coroner Charles Phillips said his office arranged an
autopsy for Seymour Wednesday but preliminary results could not be released
because the investigation continues.

The funeral service for Seymour will be held Friday in Clinton, where his
parents live, said George Charlet, owner of Charlet Funeral Home in Clinton.

Seymour was born in Metairie and was living in Jefferson with his wife and
young son, Charlet said.

Visitation will be today from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the funeral home and Friday
from 8:30 a.m. until the service at 10 a.m. at Clinton United Methodist
Church. Burial will be in Masonic Cemetery in Clinton.

A fund has been set up at Clinton Bank and Trust Co. for Seymour's son, David
Glen Seymour Jr.

He also is survived by his wife, Cynthia Morgan Seymour; his parents, Dennis
and Becky Phelps Seymour; his brother, Michael Seymour of Clinton; his
grandmothers, Mildred Needham Phelps of Clinton and Leona Picard Seymour of
Biloxi, Miss.; and several uncles and aunts.