NEW ORLEANS — Two 17-year-olds arrested after allegedly attempting to back a car into a police officer in Lakeview were booked into adult jail Wednesday despite their ages.
A massive manhunt for Nascia Blanton, Micah Scott and a third suspect who remains at-large shut down part of Lakeview between Milne Street and Canal Boulevard Tuesday morning and put four schools on lockdown. SWAT teams and K-9 units responded in force to a call of an officer in need of assistance on Louis XIV Street.
Both teens were booked into the Orleans Justice Center and face charges of simple burglary and principal to aggravated assault on a police officer, court records show.
While the felony burglary counts were referred to juvenile court because they are considered non-violent crimes, the assault charges will remain in adult court, where the two made their first appearances Wednesday morning.
Bail was set at $5,000 for Blanton and $10,000 for Scott on the principal to aggravated assault charges. However, Scott is on parole from a 2019 conviction and can’t be released until his parole hold is lifted.
Prosecutors said that neither suspect was the driver, who they allege drove the car at a high rate of speed toward an officer.
Violent offenses such as principal to aggravated assault are handled in adult court for suspects under the age of 18, but that will change on July 1, when all 17-year-olds will be processed in juvenile court. That’s when the second phase of Louisiana’s “raise the age” law kicks in, a reform measure to give younger offenders a better chance at rehabilitation.
NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said Blanton, the first to be captured, was a “habitual offender” in juvenile court. Blanton has no adult record.
“Time and time again we are arresting and re-arresting and re-arresting some of the same individuals for many of these crimes," Ferguson said.
Scott, however, has been in the adult criminal justice system since he was 16 years old. That was his age in 2018 when he was charged with two other men with armed robbery.
In January 2019, Scott entered into a plea bargain and pled guilty to simple robbery. He was sentenced to two years on probation. But that didn’t last long.
In May 2019, Scott arrested for as a juvenile for illegal carrying of a weapon, possession of a handgun by a juvenile and resisting arrest. Based on the arrest, Scott’s probation was revoked a month later and he was sentenced as an adult to 21 months at hard labor.
However, Scott served about one-third of that sentence before he was released based on a combination of good time and credit for time served. The state Department of Corrections said Scott was given 285 days credit for time her previously served and another 285 days for good time parole for “certified treatment and rehabilitation program courses he took while incarcerated.”
His full-term release date would have been May 24, 2020, a department spokesman said.
According to Ferguson, the incident started around 8:45 a.m. when the NOPD received reports of suspicious people in a car in Lakeview. A plain-clothes officer responded to the scene and reportedly saw three suspects pulling on car door handles.
The officer called for backup and a marked police unit approached the stolen vehicle from the front. The plain-clothes officer attempted to approach the vehicle, a black Nissan Maxima, from the back when the driver put the car in reverse and attempted to run the officer over, Ferguson said.
The officers involved fired multiple shots at the car, which crashed at a nearby intersection shortly after. The suspects ran from the scene.
One was captured shortly after the crash. A second was arrested around 3 p.m., after police broke down and then re-established their perimeter in the neighborhood.
Ferguson said one of the 17-year-olds in NOPD custody was a "habitual offender."
“Time and time again we are arresting and re-arresting and re-arresting some of the same individuals for many of these crimes," Ferguson said.
Court records show Scott was arrested and appeared in adult court before, in June of 2018, on counts of armed robbery and simple robbery when he was 16. Records also show his parole was revoked in January of 2019.
Blanton had no previous records in Orleans Parish adult court.
The vehicle in question, which was crashed near Bragg and Louis XIV streets, had been reported stolen out of New Orleans East. NOPD officials could not say if the suspects were armed.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
