Authorities in Louisiana have taken a Baton Rouge resident into custody following a detailed multi-month investigation into a targeted residential shooting that left a sleeping occupant wounded. Alexander Allen Jr. now faces a series of severe felony charges, most notably five counts of attempted first-degree murder, after law enforcement officials tied him to a coordinated firearm attack on an occupied household earlier this year.
The violent incident traces back to the early morning hours of March 22, when patrol officers from the Baton Rouge Police Department were dispatched to a residence situated along Lexington Drive. Emergency communications alerted dispatchers to gunfire erupting in the neighborhood, prompting an immediate deployment of law enforcement units to secure the perimeter, assist the victims, and investigate the source of the disturbance.
Upon arriving at the Lexington Drive address, responding officers discovered that an active shooting had taken place, directly injuring an individual who was inside the home. According to investigative affidavits released by law enforcement, the wounded victim had been asleep on a living room sofa when a barrage of bullets suddenly pierced through the exterior of the house, striking the victim without warning.
Following the gunfire, family members or acquaintances attempted an urgent transport of the wounded victim toward a local medical facility using a private personal vehicle. However, during the transit, the vehicle was forced to pull over in the 2600 block of Yorktown Drive, where the occupants were met by dispatched emergency medical technicians who rendered immediate roadside assistance before transporting the patient for professional hospital care.
Back at the Lexington Drive crime scene, forensic technicians and detectives meticulously scoured the surrounding property for physical and ballistic evidence related to the gunfire. Investigators successfully recovered five spent .40-caliber shell casings situated near the rear exterior of the home, confirming the ammunition caliber utilized during the attack and pinpointing the exact location where the gunmen stood.
Official case records confirmed that a total of five people were present inside the home at the exact moment the projectiles entered the structure. Because discharging high-caliber firearms into an occupied dwelling poses an immediate life-threatening danger to every single occupant within, investigators and prosecutors subsequently filed five distinct counts of attempted first-degree murder against the alleged shooter.
A major development in the case came when detectives obtained and analyzed neighborhood surveillance camera footage that captured the moments surrounding the shooting. The video recordings showed three masked Black men approaching the rear boundary of the residence on foot, brandishing firearms, discharging multiple rounds directly into the dwelling, and quickly fleeing the area on foot under cover of darkness.
As the Baton Rouge Police Department deepened its inquiry, investigators developed an initial suspect identified as Jason Hayes Jr. Detectives uncovered evidence indicating that Hayes was actively embroiled in an ongoing interpersonal conflict with a family member of one of the individuals residing inside the Lexington Drive residence.
Through continued investigative follow-ups and intelligence gathering, detectives also developed a second suspect known throughout the area by the street moniker "Baby Dee." Police learned through their inquiry that this individual maintained close ties with Hayes, having previously worked alongside him as a colleague and continuing to share an active personal friendship.
During subsequent formal interviews, an eyewitness positively confirmed the identities of both Hayes and the associate known as "Baby Dee." Furthermore, the witness directed law enforcement toward social media channels, informing investigators that "Baby Dee" had uploaded a video online wearing clothing that directly matched the distinct garments seen on one of the masked shooters in the surveillance footage.
Equipped with this information, detectives applied for and were granted a formal court search warrant on May 7 to examine the digital contents of a mobile phone belonging to Hayes. A forensic extraction and examination of the device uncovered several photographs depicting a Black male dressed in the exact outfit worn by "Baby Dee" on the date of the shooting, with the subject visibly posing with a firearm.
To definitively establish the real legal identity behind the alias, Baton Rouge detectives pursued information indicating that "Baby Dee" had a brother. By conducting cross-reference searches within internal police databases for reports involving the brother, detectives located documentation identifying the associated subject as Alexander Allen Jr., and the photographs retrieved from the phone confirmed that the armed man was indeed Allen.
Following the conclusive identification, law enforcement officers apprehended Allen and formally booked him into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. In addition to the five counts of attempted first-degree murder, jail records indicate that Allen was formally booked on charges of illegal use of a weapon and aggravated criminal damage to property for the destruction inflicted upon the home.
The arrest of Allen highlights the critical role that digital forensics, surveillance technology, and social media tracking play in contemporary violent crime investigations. By cross-referencing physical ballistics from the Lexington Drive scene with electronic records and database history, Baton Rouge detectives were able to connect an ongoing personal feud to a coordinated shooting and bring formal criminal charges against the suspect.
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