Four dead, three wounded in Louisiana killing spree

(Reuters) - A suspected gunman in Louisiana killed three people and wounded three others near New Orleans before turning a shotgun on himself and committing suicide, police said on Friday. The incidents took place on Thursday night in Lafourche Parish, about 45 miles southwest of New Orleans. Three of the people died of gunshot wounds, and the cause of death has yet to be determined for one of the victims. Ben Edward Freeman is suspected of shooting Lafourche Parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux, his wife Susan and daughter Andrea. The wife died in the shooting and the other two were in critical condition at an area hospital. "Deputies learned Ben Freeman is a former son-in-law of the Gouauxs, having been formerly married to their daughter, Jeanne Gouaux," the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office said in a statement. About 20 minutes later, Freeman is suspected of going to the home of hospital administrator Milton Bourgeois and opening fire. Freeman had once been an employee of the hospital where Bourgeois worked. Bourgeois was shot at close range and died. His wife was also shot and was in critical condition at a hospital. Freeman's body was found later that night in a car along the side of a road with a shotgun wound to the head. The body of his wife, Denise Taylor Freeman, was found at their home and it was not yet known how she died, the sheriff's office said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Kevin Gray and Jim Marshall)