New Orleans Police: Deputy Shot Multiple Times While Working With Federal Drug Enforcement Task Force

NEW ORLEANS (TheBlaze/AP) -- A sheriff's deputy working as part of a federal task force serving a warrant in the Lower 9th Ward section of New Orleans was shot multiple times Tuesday, police said.

Deputy Stephen Arnold (Image source: WWL-TV)

The Jefferson Parish deputy was taken to a hospital and was the only one injured, police said. The deputy was identified as 35-year-old Stephen Arnold, a 12-year veteran, WWL-TV reported.

The deputy was working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, police spokesman Garry Flot said.

Deputy Chief Paul M. Noel told reporters at the scene that when law enforcement entered a house to serve the warrant, one person inside opened fire shortly after 6 a.m.

The suspect was taken into custody and two other men who were inside are being questioned, Flot said.

Sheriff Newell Normand said Arnold was shot five times, once in the neck and four times in the torso and the arm, and that Arnold was in "critical," but "stable," condition. He underwent surgery that lasted at least two hours.

"There appeared a time where he stopped breathing," Normand said. "At this point in time, we're just praying, praying, praying that neurologically that there's not any impairment."

The shooting happened in an area that abuts the levee protecting the neighborhood from the Mississippi River. The Lower 9th Ward saw some of the city's worst devastation from Hurricane Katrina in 2005

Albert Greenleaf said he heard about the shooting on the news Tuesday morning and recognized the street where his sister lived. He said he and his wife rushed over to see whether she was OK - and she was.

"It's normally quiet and peaceful," Greenleaf said of the area.