This story is one where a father takes the law into his own hands and gets justice for horrific acts that were done to his 11-year-old by a monster of a man.
Gary Plauché was living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his 10-year-old son Jody in 1983. That’s where he enrolled Jody in karate lessons. There, Jody became ‘friends’ with his 25-year-old instructor, Jeff Doucet. However, Doucet was a predator and had been grooming Jody for months. Doucet began sexually abusing Jody before eventually abducting him. While Jody survived and Doucet was arrested, he never got to face the court’s justice as Gary shot him dead on live TV before he could.
Gary Plauché
Over several months, Doucet mildly groped the child, eventually turning into molestation and rape. Doucet eventually abducted Jody and took the 11-year-old to a relative’s house in Port Arthur, Texas before getting on a bus to Los Angeles, where he held Jody for a week.
Luckily, police were able to track Jody and Doucet and the boy was recovered safely. Doucet was arrested and a rape kit was completed on Jody, confirming that he was in fact heavily sexually abused by Doucet.
The boys father was not going to take this lying down.
When he discovered that Doucet was being brought back to Louisiana, he decided to take justice into his own hands. Going incognito in a baseball cap and sunglasses, Gary went to the Baton Rouge airport and waited for Doucet to arrive. While there, he talked on the phone to his best friend Jimmy, ESPN reports, and said to him, “Here he comes. You’re about to hear a shot.”
As news outlets had their cameras rolling while following Doucet through the airport, Gary waited until Doucet passed him, turned towards him, exposed a gun that he had hidden in a newspaper and shot Doucet through the right ear. Doucet did not immediately die from the shot, however, he eventually succumbed to this injuries and died.
Gary’s son wasn’t happy at first, hearing that his father had killed Doucet.
“After the shooting happened, I was very upset with what my father did. I did not want Jeff killed. I felt like he was going to go to jail, and that was enough for me,” he said according to The Advocate. However, according to ESPN, he also knew his father was simply trying to protect him. “My dad was absolutely too extreme. He used to tell people, ‘If anybody ever touches my kid, I’ll kill him.’ I knew he wasn’t kidding. That’s why I couldn’t tell anybody. And that’s exactly what he ended up doing.”
Gary didn’t end up spending one day behind bars!
While he pleaded no contest to a manslaughter charge, he was given a seven-year suspended sentence, five years of probation, and some community service. He later said he had “no regrets” about what he’d done.
Video of Gary shooting Doucet can be seen below. However, viewers should be warned that the clip depicts violence and may be disturbing, so watch at your own risk.