ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a Covington Police pursuit involving a bus ended with a crash at a Covington school Tuesday morning.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office says a Florida woman was driving a repurposed school bus which is covered in graffiti and spray-painted with the words “Sex Trafficking Awareness” across the side of the bus.
“Just before 6 a.m. Tuesday, STPSO deputies received a call from employees of a gas station in the 2200 block of Florida Street in Mandeville after a woman came into the store carrying a blowtorch and said she was looking for the local Department of Children and Family Services Office. She was driving a school bus covered in graffiti. The bus had a Virginia license plate,” says STPSO spokesperson Sgt. Suzanne Carboni.
STPSO Deputies spotted the bus on U.S. Highway 190 near a Walmart and the pursuit began. The chase continued into downtown Covington, where the driver crashed the bus into a fence on St. Scholastica Academy campus.
Carboni says the driver, deputies identified as Natalie Jade Jarvis, was taken into custody.
The sheriff’s office says they believe she has been living in the bus at a nearby state park for the past month.
In January, a man who they say was also believed to be living in the bus with Jade was arrested on domestic abuse charges at the state park according to the sheriff’s office.
There were no other occupants on the bus at the time of the chase.
Covington Police Department assisted with the pursuit, and Fire District 4 assisted at the incident at the gas station on Florida Street.
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