NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans city leaders say the man accused of a brutal carjacking while a woman was pumping gas at a Costco was "no stranger" to the city's criminal justice system.
Even Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she had tried to work with his family to steer him in another direction when he was younger.
The New Orleans Police Department booked 18-year-old Tyrese Harris on Sunday on one count of simple carjacking following an incident on Feb. 1 at the Costco store on Dublin Street. Harris also admitted to fatally shooting a 12-year-old child and leaving him to die on a New Orleans East road in January, according to court documents. His bond was set at $2.5 million by a magistrate judge.
Harris is accused of carjacking Kelleye Rhein on Tuesday while she was pumping gas at Costco. Police say while Rhein was fueling her car just before 3 p.m. when Harris climbed into her car and drove off. Rhein hung onto her car and was dragged for about 40 feet through the parking lot, suffering a fractured skull and several cuts in the attack.
While police interviewed Harris about the Costco carjacking, detectives also asked him about the Jan. 10 killing of 12-year-old Derrick Cash. The Success Prep at Thurgood Marshal student was found in the 1400 block of Michoud Boulevard shot in the head and body next to a stolen Jeep Cherokee. The car was reportedly stolen from a valet line at the Pontchartrain Hotel and was suspected of being used in a series of crimes. According to court documents, during the course of the investigation police found a cellphone belonging to Harris. Evidence on the phone allegedly implicated Harris in Cash's murder.
Court documents indicate Harris may have also been involved in a Jan. 18 attempted carjacking at a gas station near the former Lee Circle. Harris allegedly shot at the car owner before running from the scene. Police found spent shell casings and Harris' cellphone on the ground nearby.
Cantrell said Harris was "no stranger" to the city's criminal justice system and at one point was involved in the city's Juvenile Justice Intervention Center which seeks to steer juvenile offenders away from a life of crime.
"I've personally worked with the family here to try to steer this individual into a different pathway," Cantrell said. "We actually had him signed up to be affiliated with the Junior National Guard - a way to get him out of the city, to steer this individual in the right direction."
At an anti-crime "Rally for Peace" event on Monday, New Orleans Council President Helena Moreno said that Harris had been arrested more than a dozen times and charged with 30 separate crimes as a juvenile.
"If this is not a child screaming for intervention, then I don't know who is," Moreno said.
Moreno said Cantrell's office is at least partly to blame for the failure to intervene.
"When it comes to services for kids who go through the juvenile justice system here in New Orleans, it is the mayor's office of youth and families that are responsible for those services," Moreno said.
“The council has to jump through hoops to get a lot of things done when the mayor with just a phone call and a directive could do things now,” Moreno added.
Cantrell defended her administration, saying that it is doing everything it can to get young people out of a life of "crime and assault." Still, she called on other parts of the city's justice system to do more.
"They arrested this young man over and over again, and now it's time for the other elements within our criminal justice system to do their part to ensure that our people can live freely in the City of New Orleans and not have to fear for their lives," Cantrell said.
Records also show that Harris was arrested following an armed robbery in August, though that case was later refused by prosecutors in New Orleans District Attorney Jason William's office. He currently faces only a charge of aggravated flight from an officer in that incident. He was out on a $12,500 bond since Nov. 16.
Williams issued a statement Monday saying that his office didn't have what it needed to pursue charges in that incident. "We were unable to accept charges on all counts due to an initial decision by the victim of the robbery not to participate in the post-arrest investigation. We support our victims and their wishes. We understand that victims have been traumatized in these cases; our goal is never to retraumatize them. Nonetheless, victim and witness testimony is often the lifeline of a case and, without it, we are often unable to move forward with charges."
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WWL-TV reporters Paul Murphy and Mike Perlstein contributed to this report.