Good deed turns violent

A Slidell man allegedly shot a 60-year-old woman three times Saturday night while the woman was doing him a favor, Slidell police said.

Slidell police spokesman Capt. Kevin O’Neil said Richard McCullough, 57, 337 Brighton St., was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with attempted second-degree murder.

Police got a call from the victim around 8 p.m. she told dispatchers she had been shot while in her car near the intersection of Lindberg Drive and Fremaux Avenue.

When officers arrived they found the victim’s car in a ditch, and she was in the driver’s seat with two bullet wounds to the left cheek and one wound to her neck.

O’Neil said she was shot with a small caliber weapon. The woman, whose identity was not released by police, was taken to Northshore Regional Medical Center. O’Neil said Tuesday the woman was in stable condition. The bullet that went into her neck traveled into her chest, but the wound is not life-threatening, O’Neil said.

Detectives questioned the victim, and though she was hazy about what happened after the shooting, she told them she had gone to McCullough’s house earlier in the day to inquire about an ad to share his residence. The victim told police she and McCullough came to an agreement for her to live at the house. The woman started to move in Saturday afternoon.

That evening, McCullough asked the woman if she would follow him to a car repair shop in her car and then drive him back to the house. She agreed and followed McCullough’s car. McCullough stopped his car on Lindberg Drive and walked back to the victim’s car. She rolled down her window, and McCullough allegedly shot the woman three times, got back in his car and drove off.

Police went to McCullough’s house at 2 a.m. Sunday and arrested him without incident, O’Neil said.

O’Neil said the motive for the shooting is a mystery. He said the victim and McCullough were not related in any way, nor did they have a history.

“He will not say why he shot her, and he is being very tight-lipped. It is very strange,” O’Neil said. “When he was arrested, he didn’t show any emotion.”