DENHAM SPRINGS— Denham Springs Police Sgt. Scott Sterling said officers were called to Motel 6 on Rushing road around 3 a.m. Saturday. 

Chevis Whalen, who went by his middle name Ashton, was reported to be shooting a gun from the second floor of the motel.

“There were several calls about his behavior and being out just firing a gun in the air. Apparently there were several shots fired before officers were ever dispatched," Sterling said.

Whalen's mother, Lee St. Angelo, told WBRZ her son had a methamphetamine addiction, and that motel was the hub for exchanges. 

"He's been off and on, sweet kid when he's not messed up on drugs, you know," St. Angelo said. 

She said she's tried for years to get the police to respond more aggressively to drug dealing at the motel, but says she was told the officers were ordered to 'stand down' from the area. 

"I just find it ironic, the police officers who would not help me get the methamphetamines coming out of this motel are the ones that gunned my son after leaving the motel getting the drugs. That just blows my mind," St. Angelo said. 

Sterling flatly denied that any order was given to officers to refrain from pursuing drug dealing at the motel. In fact, he said many drug arrests have been made there and at neighboring motels.

St. Angelo said her son often had run-ins with Denham Springs Police, and they knew him by name. 

"Police officers know him, they know him by name, they know where he lives, I'm not sure what happened," St. Angelo said. 

DSPD said officers found Whalen armed in the street near the motel. Officers and Livingston Deputies exchanged gunfire with him. He died later at a hospital. 

 “There's always an attempt to de-escalate and when that is not successful and officers find themselves in a life or death situation where a gun is pointed at them they take the same action," Sterling said. 

In the video St. Angelo received, an officer can be heard yelling at Whalen. Then, gunfire with more than a dozen shots is heard. 

"Do I believe there was an exchange of gunfire, absolutely not? If that had been the case, they would have opened fire on him immediately,” St. Angelo said.

St. Angelo said her son was in a wheelchair after losing a leg in a 2018 motorcycle crash.

"I actually thought he would've been hit by a car rolling up and down that road, I didn't expect him to be getting gunned down especially because the police know him," St. Angelo said.

St. Angelo said she lives in Alabama but had been in Denham Springs Friday evening. She saw her older son while she was there, but didn't see Ashton.

"If I had known he had a gun, I would've not gone back to Gulf Shores and left him with a gun," St. Angelo said.

Sterling said the department asked the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office to investigate the shooting because both the Denham Springs officer and Livingston Parish Deputies were involved.