Arkansas Baptist player among victims in Louisiana shooting

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Officials say an Arkansas Baptist College football player was among the two people killed in a Christmas Eve shooting west of New Orleans.

Authorities say 20-year-old Thaddeus Watis of Convent, Louisiana, died after the shooting Tuesday night in Lutcher, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of New Orleans. Arkansas Baptist Coach Richard Wilson says Watis was a freshman football player at the private college in Little Rock.

Wilson tells the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that Watis played several positions but was primarily a linebacker. Wilson says that the team is in shock and that Watis was the type of player that coaches "bragged on every day.