[StBernard] Violet man apprehended in connection with fatal shooting of high school student

[Westley Annis]

Violet man apprehended in connection with fatal shooting of high school
student
Posted by rvargas January 13, 2009 17:50PM

A St. Bernard Parish man has been arrested for allegedly shooting his wife
and her daughter in a fit of rage early Tuesday. The daughter was killed.

Charles Richardson, 50, was caught in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Tuesday
afternoon, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office said. Details were not
immediately available, but the sheriff's office said Richardson was
apprehended after a chase on an interstate highway. 

The daughter, 18-year-old India Mahoney, was a senior at Warren Easton
Senior High School in New Orleans.

Detectives say Charles Richardson shot the women inside their home at 2208
Highland Street about 5:30 a.m., said Chief Deputy Jimmy Pohlmann.

Police were alerted, and authorities arrived to find Mahoney dead of a
gunshot wound. A bullet, meanwhile, had hit Elizabeth "Beth Marie"
Richardson in the neck and injured her.

Charles Richardson, meanwhile, had fled in a pickup truck, prompting a
day-long manhunt.

India Mahoney, allegedly killed by her mother's husband Tuesday in Violet.
Paramedics rushed Elizabeth Richardson, who is in her early 50s, to
University Hospital. There, she gave deputies her husband's name, saying he
shot both of them, Pohlmann said. Elizabeth Richardson's family said she
will require survery, but that doctors are hopeful she will survive.

Elizabeth Richardson adopted Mahoney when she was a young girl, authorities
said. She married the suspect after she had adopted her daughter.

The couple recently split and authorities said that Elizabeth Richardson
obtained a restraining order against Charles Richardson last September.
However, Elizabeth Richardson let her husband back into the home because of
his kidneys and their need for treatment, Pohlmann said.

Pohlmann said detectives discovered Mahoney was a senior at Warren Easton, a
charter high school in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans.

Students and teachers at the school said Mahoney was friendly and
well-liked.

Detectives don't yet know what touched off the tragedy.

Charles Richardson's father, Eugene Richardson, said he rushed to Violet
from his construction job Uptown as soon as he heard about the shooting. He
said he spent the morning trying to reach his son by cellphone, but to no
avail.

Eugene Richardson said his son had not been able to work due to kidney
ailments which required dialysis. 

The sheriff's office said detectives, commanded by Col. John Doran, will
travel to Missouri Wednesday.