LACOMBE, La. — On March 3, Bre Morgan set out to do some chores.
She was at a laundromat in Lacombe to do the family’s wash when she encountered a situation that could have dramatically changed her life.
“All I could think about was my kids, I didn’t want them to grow up without me,” she said in an interview with WWL Louisiana Monday. WWL Louisiana does not normally identify victims of sexual assault, but Morgan has decided to share her story.
Morgan had plans that day just to do her laundry and then get back home to her two children. She didn’t know the man who came into the laundromat and sidled up to her under the pretense of helping her put her dollar in the automated machine, had ill intent, but she soon figured it out.
Morgan said he whispered a vulgarity into her ear and made it clear that she would be assaulted. Nicholas Tranchant, 40, was one of an estimated 150 sex offenders who resides in the city of about 7,000 people. He was convicted in 2003 of a charge of indecent behavior with juveniles and in 2008 of aggravated rape. He had gotten out of prison just months before.
“(It) was the worst feeling ever,” she said. “Not knowing how it’s going to end, what’s coming next.”
She said as Tranchant began his attack, he briefly let down his guard and that she took advantage of the opportunity to fight back.
“When he was attacking me, he had set his knife down and that’s when I picked It up and used it against him.”
She was able to stab Tranchant before fleeing. She called for help and he was taken to the hospital where he later died. Morgan also needed medical help and had some stiches put in to heal her physical wounds.
A GoFundMe page that was set up to help Morgan pay medical expenses said she was working two jobs – as a medical technician and cleaning houses on the side. She said she has plans to eventually attend nursing school, but one of her first wishes is that something is done about the concentration of sex offenders in a small geographic area.
“It really does need to be changed,” she said.