It had been five days since Hurricane Ida disrupted power and caused gas lines for hours in southeastern Louisiana, and Dwayne Nosacka, 36, was waiting in one of those queues in front of a station. from Chevron to Metairie with hundreds of others when Walter Sippio cut in front of him.
Nosacka jumped out of his car and confronted 20-year-old Sippio for cutting the line.
What happened next depends on whether the Jefferson parish sheriff’s office or the Sippio family explain things. But what is confirmed is this: Sippio shot and killed Nosacka, is arrested for murder and plans to argue that it was self-defense, saying he fired the deadly bullet to protect his life from a man with a knife.
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And now, the families of two young parents are trying to cope with what happened.
“My family is devastated: my mother is baffled and no mother should have to bury her son,” Nosacka’s brother Jonathan Angle said during a brief interview on Saturday, a day after the deadly shooting .
Sippio’s mother and grandmother said his family is also baffled, because they insist that Walter wasn’t even trying to get gas. They argued that Nosacka approached aggressively and allegedly threatened Walter and his brother with a knife while Walter checked to see if he could get money from an ATM.
“I think it’s bad for everyone to punch someone who was defending themselves,” said Yolanda Sippio, Walter Sippio’s mother. “My son is innocent.”
Walter Sippio and Dwayne Nosacka (photos provided)
Initially, it seemed that the confrontation between Sippio and Nosacka would serve as a warning about the loss of patience of people in long lines outside gas stations. Residents in the area have been mobilizing businesses since Ida’s Aug. 29 arrival to power their cars or gasoline generators.
But it now appears the case becomes the latest test of Louisiana’s self-defense law, which allows people to kill anyone who puts them “in a reasonable apprehension of imminent bodily harm or death.”
According to Sheriff Joe Lopinto, Sippio and Nosacka were both in a queue Friday afternoon to fill up at 2301 Clearview Parkway station when Sippio (driving a white minivan) pulled up in front of Nosacka.
Nosacka got out of his car, confronted Sippio for cutting off the gas line and started arguing with him, attracting spectators trying to calm things down, Lopinto said. But Sippio ran back to his minivan, pulled out a pistol, and aimed it at Nosacka.
Nosacka, Lopinto said, raised his arms as if to make a gesture, “What are you going to do, shoot me?” Sippio then shot Nosacka in the chest and, with hundreds of spectators watching, left, Lopinto said. Some witnesses were stunned, but Lopinto said others continued to fill up around a prone Nosacka.
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Paramedics took Nosacka, from Metairie, to University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Meanwhile, Sippio rushed to his home in New Orleans and told his mother and grandmother a different version of events. He said he would walk into the gas station store to see if he could use the ATM when a man accused him of cutting the gas line, according to the two women.
Sippio told his mother and grandmother that Nosacka addressed him and his brother and said, “You skipped me. I’m going to show you all. ” Sippio said Nosacka had a knife, so he grabbed a gun and shot Nosacka to protect himself and his brother, so he could see his young son again.
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Witnesses had photos of Sippio and his license plate and investigators had used that information to identify him as a suspect, Lopinto said. Deputies were preparing to pick him up when Sippio showed up at the Sheriff’s Office complex in Metairie and surrendered.
“We didn’t want him to run,” his grandmother, Dorian Sippio, said. “He didn’t have to run.”
Deputies reserved Sippio for a second-degree murder. If convicted, he would face mandatory life imprisonment. He remained in custody Saturday instead of $ 500,000 bail.
Lopinto confirmed that Sippio claimed self-defense when he was interviewed by detectives, but the sheriff said his account did not match the statements of other witnesses or the evidence at the scene.
Sippio’s mother replied that a WVUE-TV video of the scene where she killed Nosacka showed what looked like a folding knife, with the blade pulled away, lying on the ground next to a worn carcass and test markers.
What appears to be a knife, a worn carcass and test markers at Chevron station at 2301 Clearview Parkway, which was the scene of a deadly shooting on September 3, 2021.
The sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the Sippio family’s claims that Nosacka had a knife.
In any case, Nosacka’s brother said the shooting took away a father of two children, both under the age of ten.
“It’s sad and horrible,” Angle said. “My heart aches for the mother of the child who did the same, and I wish people would not resort to violence.”
As of Saturday, at least two more people had been arrested for firing weapons during discussions at parish service stations, Lopinto said.