Law enforcemcent leaders: Calcasieu Parish remains a safe place to live

Published 2:54 pm Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Despite what is being called an “uptick” in crime around Calcasieu Parish this summer, local law enforcement leaders want to assure residents that Southwest Louisiana remains a safe place to live and raise families.

“We’re a united front,” Sheriff Stitch Guillory said during a news conference Tuesday morning while flanked by the police chiefs of Lake Charles, Iowa, Vinton, DeQuincy, McNeese State University, Sulphur and Westlake; the marshals for Lake Charles and Sulphur; Lake Charles Mayor Marshall Simien; and Calcasieu Parish District Attorney Stephen Dwight. “The safety of our community is a shared responsibility and we’re committed to confronting the issues within our community. We’re going to work together, help each other, be there for each other and provide resources for each other.”

In June, LCPD responded to a fatal shooting in the 200 block of North 1st Avenue and CPSO investigated the death of a man whose body was discovered on the side of the road near the 6700 block of U.S. 90 riddled with gunshot wounds. In July, CPSO investigated a fatal shooting at the Lake Charles Event Center Seawall, a Fourth of July shooting in the 1100 block of Allen Street in DeQuincy, and a shooting in the parking lot of Cowboys Night Club. On Saturday, LCPD responded to a fatal shooting in the parking lot of the On The Rocks bar.

“On social media people are saying how unsafe Lake Charles is, but that’s just not true,” Guillory said. “Everything you read on social media is not always true. We’re here today to dispel those rumors. Calcasieu is a safe place to live.”

CPSO — which employs 869 workers and serves more than 205,000 residents — has not had an unsolved homicide in 10 years, Guillory said.

“We go out there and we do our jobs.”

In 2023, CPSO investigated seven homicides. In 2024, that number rose to nine. From January to July of this year, there have been eight homicides in the parish — four those have been in the last four weekends.

“You’re not going to stop crime 100 percent, but when someone commits a crime in Calcasieu Parish we want them to know … we’re coming for you.”

Lake Charles Police Chief Shawn Caldwell said on the surface it may look like July had an “uptick” in crimes, but year to date the city has not had an increase in crimes.

“When you look at it year to year, it’s sometimes cyclical in nature,” he said. “I believe this year we’ve been inside the norms. I will say July appears to be an anomaly.”

Caldwell said his office has investigated 10 homicides this year within city limits.

“While two remain open, I am quite confident those two cases will be closed and we will have solved all 10 of those cases,” he said. “The men and women of the Lake Charles Police Department are going to work tirelessly to solve these crimes and to (hold the offenders) accountable.”

Lake Charles Mayor Marshall Simien said there are several components to keeping the community safe: law enforcement, the district attorney’s office, business owners and the community.

“Part of public safety is that we have to work together,” Simien said. “If law enforcement is out there doing their job, the public participates and the establishment owners participate, if we all work together, we can put an end to (these crimes). Most of the crimes we are seeing are done by people who know each other and are having offensive encounters. Bringing guns to a parking lot, bringing guns to nightclubs, bringing guns to places where you have alcohol, where you have emotions is a formula for disaster.”

Dwight said all of the law enforcement agencies in Southwest Louisiana are “on the same page” and “united.”

“This is a safe community,” he said. “I’m proud to live in this community, I’m proud to raise my family in this community.”