Deputies justified in Bayside killing of violent felon nicknamed ‘Dragon,’ grand jury says
The Hancock County sheriff’s deputies who shot and killed a violent felon in the Bayside Park community while attempting to serve a warrant have been cleared by a grand jury.
Lawrence “Dragon” Bottoms, 29, died at the scene of the shooting on April 29, 2019, after he pulled a gun on deputies that afternoon, Sheriff Ricky Adam previously told the Sun Herald.
A special response team from the sheriff’s office went to serve a warrant on Bottoms, a Louisiana resident, out of East Baton Rouge Parish for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Deputies were prepared for trouble, Adam said in April, because of Bottoms’ extensive criminal record. A confidential informant told deputies where Bottoms was in the Bayside community.
After about 20 minutes, tear gas was deployed into the home and Bottoms jumped out of a two-story window and ran into the woods, Adam said. Bottoms came out of the woods, flashed a gun and was shot by two deputies.
The deputies actions were appropriate and should not face criminal conduct, the grand jury decided Wednesday.
Bottoms was convicted in 2017 of the April 2015 stabbing of a teenager with a screwdriver, according to the Livingston Parish Clerk of Court’s Office. He pleaded guilty to aggravated battery. The teenager died months after the stabbing.
Bottoms was arrested in August 2017 in Waveland and charged with possessing a firearm while a convicted felon.
The Sun Herald has asked the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office to release the identities of the deputies who shot and killed Bottoms.
