The twin brother of a man accused of kidnapping his pregnant girlfriend was killed by police over the weekend after he allegedly pointed a gun at cops who’d shown up at his door in search of his sibling.
Baton Rouge police said that the pregnant woman’s relatives had alerted them about the alleged kidnapping, and they were looking for Deaughn Willis’ twin brother, 25-year-old Keaughn, when they showed up at the apartment complex around 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The search quickly took a tragic turn.
In a statement Sunday, Louisiana State Police said that according to a preliminary investigation, Baton Rouge police officers and East Baton Rouge Parish deputies “encountered” Deaughn Willis while at the residence, alleging that he “brandished a firearm at responding law enforcement.”
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A deputy responded by shooting Willis, who was pronounced dead on the scene by the East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner’s Office, the statement said.
Hours after fatally shooting his brother, police arrested and booked Keaughn Willis into the East Baton Rouge Parish jail at roughly 3:45 a.m. on Sunday.
When reached for comment on Monday, Trooper First Class Taylor Scrantz told The Daily Beast in an email that the agency had no further information on this case.
Sources told The Advocate that before shooting Willis, law enforcement had knocked on the door and identified themselves. Deaughn Willis answered the door and pointed a gun through the opening, they said.
Willis had previously been arrested on domestic violence charges, including for two incidents in December 2017. He was issued a bench warrant last year after failing to appear for a hearing but that was all unrelated to the cops appearing at his home on Saturday, the sources said.
According to an arrest report obtained by The Advocate, cops were instead looking for Willis’ twin brother who had allegedly gotten into a fight with his girlfriend earlier on Saturday morning. Police said that during the dispute Keaughn Willis “grabbed her with both his hands and forcefully pulled her inside of his vehicle.”
Willis allegedly told the woman that he was taking her to Oklahoma and refused to let her get out of the car, according to the report, which details Willis pulling her hair, taking her cellphone and using demeaning language before parking his car and allegedly trying to rape her.
Police said that the woman eventually managed to bust a window on the passenger’s side of the car and fled.
When Willis returned to the apartment hours later, he was arrested on allegations of third-degree rape, sexual battery, simple kidnapping, and domestic abuse battery of a pregnant victim.
The arrest was not the first time Willis has been taken into custody over allegations of domestic violence. In June 2021, he was arrested for allegedly beating a pregnant woman and kicking her in the stomach, according to court records reviewed by The Advocate. Police said Willlis sent threatening messages to his victim and posted on Facebook that he was going to kill her. He posted $10,000 bond after he was arrested in that case on several charges including domestic abuse battery and child endangerment.
Willis was also arrested years earlier, when officers responding to a domestic dispute in September 2017 said they witnessed Willis threatening a victim with a metal pipe. The victim said Willis had taken her money and repeatedly hit her before grabbing her throat and choking her.
Keaughn Willis “took a handgun out of his pants and forcibly put it into her pants,” the victim told officers who arrived at the scene, according to The Advocate.
Louisiana State Police said its detectives would “continue to review all evidence and aspects of the incident to ensure a complete and thorough investigation.”
Upon completion, the agency’s findings will be handed over to the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office, they said.
