The quiet Thursday morning at the Palmetto Creek apartment complex in Elmwood, Louisiana, turned into a heartbreaking crime scene after 28-year-old Meridian Thomas Woodson was found fatally shot inside her apartment. Investigators believe the shooting was tied to a domestic violence situation involving her former husband.
Deputies with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office rushed to the apartment complex in the 5100 block of Citrus Boulevard shortly after 10 a.m. after receiving a 911 call about a disturbance. When officers arrived, they found Woodson suffering from at least one gunshot wound inside the apartment. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Family members and neighbors were left stunned as details slowly unfolded through the afternoon. Authorities confirmed Woodson was the mother of two young daughters, ages 4 and 7. Friends described her as a caring mother whose main focus was raising her children and keeping her family together.
Investigators later identified her former husband, a 30-year-old man from Westwego, as the primary suspect in the shooting. Officials said his name had not yet been publicly released at the time of the investigation. Detectives immediately began searching for him after discovering Woodson’s body.
A short time later, deputies located the suspect’s silver GMC extended cab pickup truck parked in a nearby shopping center close to 5151 Citrus Boulevard, just steps away from the apartment complex. Inside the parking lot, investigators found the man suffering from what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Emergency crews rushed him to a local hospital in critical condition while detectives sealed off the truck with yellow crime scene tape. Witnesses nearby said all four doors of the vehicle were open as blood dripped from the driver’s side onto the pavement beneath the truck before it was eventually towed away for evidence processing.
Back at the apartment complex, crime scene investigators spent hours collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses. Detectives and representatives from the coroner’s office moved carefully through the area as neighbors gathered outside trying to make sense of the tragedy that had shaken the normally busy Elmwood community just west of New Orleans.
Authorities have not yet released additional details about what may have led to the deadly confrontation. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said the investigation remains active as detectives continue reviewing evidence connected to the shooting.
