A New Orleans teen who recently moved to Chalmette was booked with attempted murder of a police officer, aggravated flight from an officer, possession of stolen property and simple criminal damage over $5,000 after he fled in a stolen car from an officer trying to conduct a traffic stop, St. Bernard Sheriff James Pohlmann said.
Shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17, Sheriff Pohlmann said, deputies attempted to stop a silver Toyota 4Runner driving without its lights on near the intersection of Patricia Street and Jupiter Drive in Chalmette.
The driver, later determined to be a 16-year-old juvenile, refused to stop and led deputies on a pursuit, speeding through a residential neighborhood.
As the suspect was fleeing, he exited the roadway along Jean Lafitte Parkway to avoid a spike strip laid out by a deputy in an attempt to end the pursuit, and drove onto the lawn of a residence near the corner of Patricia Street, nearly running over a deputy standing on the sidewalk.
The deputy fired at the vehicle as it careened toward him, striking the suspect in the hand, but he continued to flee, running over a fire hydrant in the process and eventually abandoning the vehicle in the parking lot of a nearby business on West Judge Perez Drive.
The suspect fled on foot but was quickly apprehended by deputies. He was transported to University Hospital with non-life threatening injuries, where he was treated and released for booking, Sheriff Pohlmann said.
The vehicle was listed as stolen out of the New Orleans Police Department. The driver later admitted to carjacking the vehicle earlier that day from an elderly woman in New Orleans.
A passenger in the vehicle, the driver’s 14-year-old brother, also was booked for possession of stolen property.
The 16-year-old, who was wearing an ankle bracelet at the time of the incident for a previous charge out of New Orleans, also was booked for driving without headlamps and on five warrants out of NOPD.
The St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office is working in conjunction with NOPD on this ongoing investigation and additional charges may be filed.
Both juveniles are being held in the St. Bernard Parish Juvenile Detention Center. The 16-year-old is being held on a $545,100 bond and the 14-year-old’s bond has been set at $10,000.
