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Baton Rouge community educator killed in shooting while driving along Airline Highway

3 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago Monday, September 16 2024 Sep 16, 2024 September 16, 2024 7:03 PM September 16, 2024 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A Baton Rouge community educator died Sunday night after she was shot while driving along Airline Highway.

The Baton Rouge Police Department said Teressa Calligan was driving when she was shot multiple times, causing her to lose control of her vehicle and run into a sheriff's office vehicle. Calligan was pronounced dead at the scene and two deputies were taken to a hospital.

Calligan was the Dean of Coding for the Futures Fund division of the Walls Project and worked to provide teens with tech-based programming skills. Calligan also worked for Entergy as a cybersecurity specialist. The Walls Project shared the following statement:

“Losing Teressa Calligan so abruptly has been deeply devastating. She left a legacy of unparalleled kindness to everyone she encountered. Our organization is honored to have been graced by her devotion, a gift she granted as much as possible to those around her. She will be missed greatly by so many. Our hope is that her memory will spur others to devote themselves so fully to what they love, just as she did.”

Charles Wallace is the bishop of Oasis Church in Brookstown, where Calligan was a member. He said that she did not deserve what happened to her.

“This is not supposed to happen to her. That's not who she is, what she was,” Bishop Wallace said. "None of her lifestyle was a reflection of how she was taken out."

Bishop Wallace said Calligan strived to impact her community and could do that through her faith and work with the Walls Project.

"She has definitely has left a fingerprint on the next generation. We'll always remember her,” Wallace said

Calligan is a relative of Niles Haymer, a candidate for Baton Rouge City Court Judge. She attended one of his campaign events at Dearman's Diner about an hour before she was killed.

"Last night's senseless violence in Baton Rouge claimed the life of Teressa Calligan, my wife's cousin, business partner, and our friend," Haymer said on Facebook. "These shootings are happening too often and have become too normalized in Baton Rouge. This is too painful."

During August, there were multiple shootings — including five that happened on an interstate.

BRPD Cpl. Saundra Watts said someone pulled up alongside Calligan's vehicle and opened fire. She said that these types of shootings are happening more frequently.

"We are seeing an increase where we are having road rage incidents or people that are targeted along the interstate or just major thoroughfares here in the city and they are being struck by gunfire," Cpl. Watts said. "We are learning that some of these are road rage incidents and some are just targeted."

As of Monday afternoon, no arrests have been made. 

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