Police: Man visiting New Orleans to plan wedding shot dead

NEW ORLEANS – Investigators believe robbery was a motive in the weekend shooting death of a St. Louis man visiting New Orleans to plan his wedding, police chief Michael Harrison said Monday.

“At some point, the robbery turned deadly,” Harrison said during a news conference on the death of 25-year-old Thomas Rolfes.

Rolfes was a Tulane University graduate who was back in the city with his fiancee, Elizabeth Fried, who had flown in from Boston. They planned to choose a wedding venue in the city.

They had arrived on separate flights Friday night. She arrived late and had stayed at their hotel. Rolfes had gone out with friends.

“I didn’t even get to see him,” Fried said Sunday.

Rolfes’ body was found about 4:30 a.m. Saturday. He had been shot and, Harrison said, there were injuries on his hands indicating there may have been a struggle.

Surveillance video from a convenience store near where the body was found showed Rolfes entering alone around 3:30 a.m., buying two bottles of water and then leaving. He earlier had been with friends at a bar nearly two miles away.

It was unclear if Rolfes had been shot where the body was found. Harrison declined to answer whether any shell casings were found at the scene.

In a Facebook posting, former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Rolfes had worked in his 2012 campaign. Romney called the death “a senseless and tragic loss.”