NEW ORLEANS — The manhunt that followed the double shooting that wounded a deputy constable and a property manager at a New Orleans East apartment complex Wednesday sparked one of the biggest manhunts and SWAT rolls in recent New Orleans history.
Jason Tillman, 23, was arrested about four hours and 10 miles away after being coaxed from the Mid-City house that was surrounded by a two-block police perimeter that included a massive show of force by local, state and federal agencies, forcing two nearby schools on lockdown and temporarily closing Canal Street.
Tillman, however, was only booked with violating probation, generating considerable intrigue as detectives sort through the facts of the initial shooting that broke out in the 7800 block of Coronet Court as Deputy Constable Warren Smith, 53, was trying to serve an eviction notice at about 10 a.m. An unnamed property manager, 36, who accompanied Smith was also shot.
As of Thursday, New Orleans police would only confirm that Tillman was the subject of the manhunt that started at Coronet Court and ended more than 10 miles away at a shotgun double in the 3200 block of Iberville Street. The eviction notice lists a woman with the same last name, Cathernell Tillman, as the person being evicted.
Among the biggest unanswered questions is who fired shots during the initial confrontation? And if there was more than one shooter, who fired first?
NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson posed the question when he first briefed the media at University Medical Center within two hours after the shooting.
“We do not have any further information about how many shots were fired,” Ferguson said at the time. “We do not have any information as to who discharged. That is all part of the investigation we are conducting right now.”
Ferguson added that the investigation is being led by the NOPD’s Force Investigation Team, or FIT, which is the unit responsible for any officer-involved shootings. Constables are fully-commissioned law enforcement officers
The NOPD confirmed that FIT appear to be still connecting the dots in the case, not commenting much beyond Ferguson’s initial statement.
Jason Tillman’s probation stems from a theft conviction and felon with a firearm conviction in 2021. Court records show Tillman was originally charged with armed robbery, but that charge was reduced in a plea bargain that made him eligible for the five years of probation that he ultimately received.
Court records also show that Tillman’s prior felony was a 2017 burglary conviction in which he also received probation along with a four-year suspended sentence. That probation was revoked in connection with the subsequent armed robbery arrest, re-establishing the four-year prison sentence.
The date on the probation revocation is Feb. 11, 2021, but the court records do not show how Tillman was back on the street within a year-and-a-half.
WWL-TV reached out to the District Attorney’s office for answers about Tillman’s probation and early release, but the office has not responded.
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