Since June, Scott Thomas, 29, had been threatening Bethany Arceneaux and their two year old child. He had locked her in a house and swore he would kill her and their son. On June 7, court records show that a protective order was issued against Thomas. He was then arrested on August 8 for violating the order, and was charged with aggravated assault and aggravated flight from an officer.
Last week, on a Wednesday, Derrimetrie Robinson says she saw Bethany honking her horn for help, after she had picked up her son from daycare. Thomas was there waiting and forced his way into her car. Derrimetrie rushed over, and Bethany begged her to take her son. She managed to grab the boy during the struggle, Thomas sped away with Bethany in his car.
Bethany was in luck, sort of, as her uncle Marcus and the rest of her family began to search for her. In two days they found her. Mr. Arceneaux had tracked her to an abandonded house in a pasture. He looked in the window and saw that Bethany was in grave danger. They kicked down the doors as Thomas began stabbing Bethany. Shots were fired, and Bethany was pulled to safety. She was then carried to a car and taken to a hospital. Uncle, cousins and a brother were involved in the rescue. “If we would have waited, she would have been dead,” said Ryan Arceneaux, brother of the kidnapping victim.
Lafayette Police Corporal Paul Mouton told a reporter that after her rescue a swat team entered the house, and found the ‘suspect was deceased’ at about 3pm on Friday. The shooting has been ruled justified, and Behany’s family will not be charged. The Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s department concluded the family acted within Louisiana state law, allowing for the use of deadly force to prevent great bodily harm or death.
Scott Thomas apparently was a violent man who ultimately paid for his violence with a violent death.
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