Allen Bares: 'protecting and serving with his last breath'

Allen Bares Jr. may not have been working Monday for the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office, but that does not mean he was not a police officer protecting Vermilion Parish.
Bares, a 12-year veteran of law enforcement, was shot and killed Monday afternoon around 4 p.m.
While mowing a lawn, he saw two suspicious people around a house and he called it into the Sheriff’s Office. He approached the men and told them he worked for the Sheriff’s Office. Moments later he was shot.
Stephen Hammons of the State Police said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that Bares was still a police officer despite not wearing a uniform.
“The deputy was on his day off, not off duty,” said Hammons. “At all times a police officer is expected to step up and do the right thing, no matter what the incident is.”
The two alleged killers of Bares were arrested seven hours after the murder took place.
Bares leaves behind a wife and two children. They live in Abbeville.
Sheriff Mike Couvillon was at Bares’ home early Tuesday morning, comforting his family.
“Today is a very sad day for the Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office and the entire first responder brotherhood,” said Couvillon. “Allen Bares Jr. was a veteran deputy with over 12 years of service and respected by all who knew him. Yesterday, Vermilion Parish suffered a huge loss. We lost a brother in law enforcement, a father, a husband and the child to his parents.”
When the Sheriff deputies arrived to Bares’s call, they located Bares shot, his personal truck gone and a gold Lexus flipped in a ditch not far from where Bares was located.
Sheriff Mike Couvillon, who visited his family early this morning, praised Bares for being a police officer 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Allen was doing what great police officers do...being a police officer 24/7,” said Couvillon. “Although off duty, he engaged himself to the call of duty by reporting two suspicious persons, calling the Sheriff’s Office to report it and to stay and maintain surveillance until the arrival of the dispatched deputy.
“Allen was protecting and serving with his last breath.”
Bares has been in law enforcement for 12 years. He worked for the Iberia Sheriff’s Office for two years and Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office for 10 years.
The last Vermilion Sheriff’s deputy to lose his life was in January of 2000. Todd Touchet, a narcotics agent for the Sheriff’s Office, was working undercover in north Louisiana when he was killed.
The Abbeville Police Department lost John Hardy on Dec. 24, 1992. He was shot a day before Christmas. He had only been an officer for two years.
As of Tuesday afternoon no funeral arrangements had been made.
“The next few days will be very sad as we lay our fellow deputy to final rest,” Couvillon said. “This is the hardest part of the law enforcement job.”