The community continues to react to the Knight Oil Tools scandal. One Lafayette resident commented, “What’s going on with the police force? That’s my initial thing. Bribery is an awful thing in and of itself, but to plant something on someone and arrest them for it, that’s just not what our country is about.”
Another Lafayette resident said, “The entire point of the police department it to protect and serve and if we don’t even have that,” the young woman broke off her sentence and shook her head.
The responses come after news broke of an alleged scheme by Mark Knight. The former Knight Oil CEO is accused of putting a plan in place to frame his brother Bryan; a plan that consisted of an employee allegedly planting drugs in his brother’s vehicle then having two veteran law enforcement agents arrest Bryan.
“It’s really horrible. I can’t understand how family members can do that to one another,” said another Lafayette woman.
According to the company website, Knight Specialties originated in Morgan City out of founder Eddy Knight’s trunk. In 1984, Knight Oil began providing services such as rentals, fishing, well services and safety training to oil and gas industries worldwide.
Oil field leaders in Lafayette described Knight Oil as a close knit company. Several of them refused to comment on the story, not wanting to pour gas on an already blazing fire. The community continues to talk about the story, which seems to leap off the pages of a Hollywood script.
“It kind of reminds me of something you would see on TV. It doesn’t seem like Lafayette, it doesn’t seem like Louisiana at all,” said another.
However, this is a real-life story of two law enforcement agents and an employee, allegedly bribed by a brother for reasons still unknown. A spokesman for Knight Oil Tools says they will not be issuing a public statement but will be communicating with their employees. In the meantime, the company will resume its day to day operations as it has for the past 43 years.