BATON ROUGE — Baton Rouge Police Homicide Detectives made a third arrest linked to a suspected home invasion at Cadence Apartments near Southern University on Dec. 3. The shooting left 21-year-old Southern student Donovan Pugh dead.
Baton Rouge Police arrested Michael Coleman Jr, 31, on Jan. 6th for his alleged involvement in the shooting death of Donovan Pugh. Coleman was charged with first-degree murder, home invasion and armed robbery.
Pugh’s mother, Wendy Hansell, told UWK, “I feel like I finally have peace. My baby boy didn’t deserve that. But God sits high.” In a Facebook post on Jan. 7, she said in part, “…I have not slept, eaten, or been able to fully function knowing my son’s killers were free while his life was stolen 4 no good reason… Well you can rest now baby boy… We got em.”
Late last year, BRPD, with the help of BRPD VCAT and the U.S. Marshal’s fugitive task force arrested the second suspect, 21-year-old Quen’Braylon Dunn for his role in Pugh’s death.
Dunn was booked in East Baton Rouge Prison for first-degree murder, home invasion, and armed robbery. He has an arrest history of sexual assault and simple burglary.
On Dec. 18, BRPD arrested another suspect in the case, 20-year-old Zion Black.
Pugh’s mother, Wendy Hansell, spoke with UWK following her son’s death. She said the two arrests are bringing her and her family some peace of mind. “I’m happy that they’re finding them. That’s given us a little peace,” she said. “I’ll be happy when they find the third one, and we can get these convictions rolling.”
Hansell’s 17-year-old son has been struggling with his brothers death, and with feeling safe leaving the house. She said the arrests have helped him. “He’s he’s being strong. Them finding these guys is giving him peace. So he’s holding on,” Hansell said.
On Dec. 3, Pugh and his roommate were home when someone came in. “He was talking to them, he never fired his gun. Just said, ‘Hey, man, get out of here,’ or something like that. And they shot him,” Hansell said.
Even in his final moments, Pugh was in protection-mode. “He was protecting him and his roommate, because the guy was crying and saying, ‘We don’t have anything else. Get out,” Hansell said.
Pugh’s family has set up a GoFundMe to raise reward money to help catch the suspects. You can donate here.
The third arrest, Coleman was currently in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on an unrelated charge. Coleman has an arrest history of Drug Distribution, Domestic Abuse Child Endangerment, Illegal Carrying of Weapons and Resisting an Officer.
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