3 brothers shot dead on a US driveway after an argument over music

An evening of watching American football game and singing karaoke at a party in a home in Louisiana turned violent on Sunday when a man shot and killed three brothers and then turned the gun on himself.

Rodney Chemin, 60, is suspected of shooting and killing Joseph Allen, 57, Perry Allen, 55, and Mark Allen, 51 before shooting himself, said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“This is a tragic situation,” said Dwayne Crumholt, Chemin’s cousin and the host of Saturday’s get-together on Talmadge Crumholt Road.

“They were all four great men,” Crumholt said.

Neighbors and relatives of Chemin described the suspected shooter as friendly and even-tempered and said they were shocked by the shootings.

Joseph Allen

According to the daughter of the person hosting the party, Jessica Crumholt, and her half-sister Adrienne Crumholt, both of whom were not at the house at the time of the fight, the argument at the party that apparently began over music led to a physical fight on the front porch of Crumholt’s house. It was unclear who was really involved in the fight on that Sunday afternoon.\

Perry Allen

Chemin walked home after the fight sometime after midnight on Sunday morning, Hicks said. The three brothers also ended up outside Chemin’s home, located not far from Dwayne Crumholt’s house on Talmadge Crumholt Road.
After hearing several shots, Dwayne Crumholt went out to see what happened and found the four bodies lying in Chemin’s driveway, his daughter said.
Jessica Crumholt said a family golf cart had been wrecked near Chemin’s driveway. It was not known Sunday afternoon which of the four victims drove it to the house.

Rodney Chemin

Neighbors said the party had begun early Saturday afternoon with drinking and music and had continued into the night as those gathered watched Saturday night’s Louisiana State University football game.
Gregory Allen, a younger brother of the three victims, said Sunday that his three siblings were all friends with Dwayne Crumholt, but Joe Allen was particularly close to him. He said it was common for the trio to visit Crumholt at his house.

“Dwayne used to have parties out there all the time on the weekends,” Gregory Allen said.

Crumholt’s daughter said Mark Allen also did maintenance work around the family’s property on Talmadge Crumholt Road.
Outside his home Sunday, Dwayne Crumholt called the brothers “three of my best friends.”

The Allen family gathered Sunday at Mark Allen’s mobile home, located next to the home of his and his brothers’ mother, Vera Allen Faubion, who has seven children, including two surviving sons and two daughters.

“It’s bad enough to lose just one,” Faubion said Sunday. “It shatters your heart when you lose three.”

Family members said both Joe and Mark Allen had worked at Ellis Electric Co. in Denham Springs for a number of years before health issues had forced both to retire. Perry Allen was a carpenter and metal worker.
Patricia Allen, a sister of the victims, described her brothers as down-to-earth and friendly “country boys” who enjoyed fishing and hunting.

“They’d help you out, do anything for you,” she said.

Neighbors and relatives of Chemin were trying to understand Sunday what prompted the shootings.

“Rodney wasn’t no brawler,” said one neighbor, who asked not to be named. “He was a laid-back, really nice guy.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Jessica Crumholt, who said she knew all four well and had dated one of Joe Allen’s adult sons for several years. “None of them were bad guys at all, they were very good guys.”