Chateau Du Lac at 333 Mill Street in Lake Charles. (Brad Puckett / American Press)
Calcasieu Parish Coroner Investigator Charlie Hunter leads the body that Lake Charles Police discovered at the Chateau Du Lac Thursday morning. Investigators ruled the death a homicide. (Brad Puckett / American Press)
Update: Lake Charles man found dead in apartment at Chateau du Lac
Last Modified: Friday, July 13, 2012 1:42 PM
A Lake Charles man was found dead in his Chateau du Lac apartment Thursday morning, police said. But they declined to offer details on how the man died.
Lake Charles Housing Authority head Ben Taylor said the man, whose name wasn’t released, was a longtime resident of the high-rise.
Officers responded to the call at 11 a.m., Deputy Police Chief Mark Kraus said, and the body was removed about four hours later.
Residents who milled in the courtyard Thursday afternoon said they had sat and talked with the man the night before. Some said they don’t feel safe in the seven-story building.
Irene Bourgeois said she always walks fellow resident Maria Albrecht to her apartment, then calls Albrecht once she’s reached her own. “It’s not safe anymore,” said Bourgeois, who said she has lived at the complex for 1 1/2 years.
“It’s kind of upsetting because this is a senior citizens’ home,” said James Doxey, who claimed to be head of the high-rise tenants’ association. “I don’t feel like it’s safe for senior citizens.”
Doxey listed security among his concerns and said that screening for residents is “flawed,” allowing dangerous mentally ill patients to live at the facility.
A caregiver who declined to give her name agreed with the residents: “I fear for our safety as well as our clients’.” But other residents said they did feel safe in the high-rise.
“People are going to be people; there’s crime everywhere,” said resident Emmanuel Chaney, who said he had not had trouble while living at the home.
The high rise, which houses 198 apartments, has been the scene of violence more than once in recent years, including the 2004 fatal shooting of a resident by police.
In January 2009, 26-year-old Theresa Latrice Green was found dead at the high rise. Deon Granger was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He remains in jail.
A month later, a male resident was accused of kidnapping a female resident on a separate floor. The woman reportedly had a restraining order against him.
Taylor said the housing authority puts the safety of the residents “first and foremost.”
“I’ve been doing this quite a while, and some residents feel unsafe no matter what the situation,” he said.
“We provide security, we do a bunch of different things to try to help people there. In (2009), it was someone that was invited up to their unit. We can’t ban guests. Until we get a little further in this, I would try to do everything we can to make the place more safe for them.”
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