In October, St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Kyra Cole called the front office of a Broussard apartment complex, complaining that a child would not stop screaming at the pool.
According to a voicemail News 10 obtained, Cole then said if she were to go outside, she would probably drown the child.
“This same kid has been screaming for over an hour,” Cole said in a voicemail on October 4, 2019.
“I cannot come home after work and just be at peace in my house and pay this amount of money to come home to this kid, and if I go outside I will probably drown them,” the lieutenant added.
The apartment turned over the voicemail to Broussard Police out of concern for the child’s safety.
The apartment complex’s management was especially concerned upon learning the caller was a firearms instructor with the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office.
According to the police report, an officer did a pool check in response to Lt. Cole’s complaint.
After speaking with the child’s mother, the officer noted the child was autistic.
The child’s mother explained the child screams when excited.
“Some autistic children cannot help the way that they make noise because of being excited or the way that they act,” Rhonda Campbell, a private investigator, said.
A mother of an autistic child herself, Campbell started looking into the incident.
“What was done was definitely police misconduct,” Campbell said.
Campbell says the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office then investigated the incident, and Internal Affairs cleared Cole several weeks later.
News 10 reached out to the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s office and asked them to comment on the incident.
The sheriff’s office responded: “Our agency was made aware of this off-duty matter by the Broussard Police Department, who advised us that after filing a routine incident report they were not investigating the matter further. Action was taken by our agency in accordance with our general orders.”
News 10 also contacted the district attorney, who said they will not be investigating the case, as they do not believe it is a criminal matter