Suspect booked in shooting at Metairie clinic

The man accused of shooting his wife at her Metairie workplace this afternoon has been booked with kidnapping and attempted murder.
Kerry Bruce, 45, wounded Stephanie Bruce, 43, at about 2:30 p.m. at Ochsner Rehabilitation Center, 850 Veterans Memorial Blvd., where she worked as a receptionist, said Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

Stephanie Bruce was taken to University Hospital in New Orleans with a gunshot wounds to her upper leg. She was in stable condition, said Fortunato, who earlier had said she was taken to East Jefferson General Hospital.

Kerry Bruce, of 2650 Bruxelles St. in New Orleans, was apprehended about 30 minutes later near the North Interstate 10 Service Road and Rosa Avenue, about five blocks from the shooting.

Sgt. Larry Dyess, another Sheriff's Office spokesman, said he faces charges of second-degree kidnapping and attempted second-degree murder. The kidnap complaint derives from Bruce pulling his wife into an elevator and trying to take her from the building after the shooting, Dyess said.

The shooting occurred on the second floor of the 850 Veterans building, which also houses a Blockbuster video store on the ground floor.

Fay Bridges of New Orleans said she and a few other patients were in the rehab room when the shooting happened.

"I heard a pop, pop, then she screamed," Bridges said of the shooting victim. Patients took cover, then Bridges heard a male employee repeatedly telling someone, "Don't do that."

A Sheriff's Office helicopter was soon flying tight circles over the intsection of Interstate 10 and Rosa. At about 3 p.m., Kerry Bruce was arrested in that vicinity, and a gun was found in a pile of leaves in the 600 block of Rosa.