Suicide ends Catahoula standoff

Catahoula — A nearly seven-hour standoff between 37-year-old Jason Bienvenu and authoriites ended late Tuesday evening, when St. Martin Sheriff's Emergency Response Team (SERT) found him dead.

Bienvenu's wife, Tammy Laviolette Bienvenu, was returning home from work when she saw her estranged husband's vehicle parked at the residence at the 3800 block of Catahoula Highway. At 3:27 p.m., she called 911 to report a violation of a restraining order that was placed on her husband.

Deputies blocked Catahoula Highway from each end of Bernis Road and set up a staging area at a distance from the home. For duration of the afternoon, nearby residents and waited anxiously outside their homes, eyes fixed on the home in the distance, for an end to the situation.

Deputies responded and tried to contact Bienvenu from outside of the house several times throughout the afternoon, but received no response.

SERT members entered the home at 10:40 p.m. and found Bienvenu's dead from what the sheriff's office is describing as self-inflicted shotgun wounds.