Gleason faces murder charges for two deaths in the city limits of Baton Rouge and an attempted murder charge related to an attack somewhere in East Baton Rouge Parish.
The D.A. found DNA on shell casings at one of the shooting scenes.
“This is extremely unusual,” District Attorney Hiller Moore said at a joint press conference Tuesday. “To actually find DNA on spent shell casings is something that just doesn’t happen.”
Gleason has also been accused of firing shots into a neighboring home on Sandy Ridge. The home was occupied at the time of the shooting, but no one was reported injured.
Witnesses of the first deadly shooting on Sept. 12 reported seeing a white male in tactical gear leaving the scene in a red vehicle. Police arrived at the scene on Florida Boulevard to find 59-year-old Bruce Cofield shot to death.
Police say a second victim, Donald Smart, was shot 10 times on Alaska Street two days later. Again, authorities say a red vehicle and, potentially, a white male were spotted near the scene. The shells found at the scenes were apparently fired from the same firearm.
Authorities began searching for the vehicle, which was seen in surveillance video from both scenes. An officer then spotted the red vehicle on Saturday and took its driver, Gleason, into custody.
On Tuesday, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press that a copy of a speech by Adolf Hitler was found inside Gleason’s home.
Gleason was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison just after midnight, Tuesday morning on new theft charges. Gleason faces a single theft charge, according to prison records. He’d also been arrested last week on drug charges but had not been formally charged in the deaths of the men at that time.
New evidence, including the DNA found at one of the scenes, led to Gleason being charged in the shootings.
The shootings have captured the national spotlight and featured on Good Morning America Tuesday morning because officers say, the shootings could be racially motivated.
Story still developing.
