CHALMETTE, La. — The long-time principal of Chalmette High School is in the hospital with serious injuries.
According to the St. Bernard Sheriff’s Office, Wayne Warner, 79, was attacked and robbed Sunday night.
Warner was driving in the 2900 block of Palmetto Street in Chalmette.
Investigators say he saw a man in a wheelchair, turning over trash cans, and rooting through mailboxes.
Warner’s wife Kitty explained what happened next.
“Wayne parked his car and got out of it, Wayne said what are you doing and that’s when the man pushed him in the chest and knocked him to the ground and stole his phone.”
With no phone, Warner says her husband laid on the ground screaming in pain before neighbors came to his rescue and called 911.
He suffered a broken hip and elbow.
Deputies found Warner’s alleged attacker Christopher Kidd, 33, a few blocks away at the Winn Dixie on Paris Road.
The double amputee was also accused of shoplifting over-the-counter medication from the store.
Sheriff Jimmy Pohlman said there was a violent confrontation when officers went to arrest Kidd.
“He grabbed a deputy by the leg causing the deputy to fall and he struck the deputy several times,” Pohlmann said. “At that point, Mr. Kidd had to be tased to take him into custody.”
Warner is a revered member of the Chalmette community.
He is the longest-serving high school principal in America with more than a half-century at the helm of Chalmette High.
“People have contacted me saying you don’t know me, but I was one of your husband’s students and he made a difference in my life,” Kitty Warner said.
“He wants to make a difference. That’s why he’s still principal at Chalmette High School. That’s why he’s held the way he is held in our community. Most people know him and love him.
Folks in Chalmette tell us that Kidd was well-known in the neighborhood as someone who always appeared to be up to no good.
“I had a little incident with him at one time where he actually rode up to my niece’s house in his wheelchair and attempted to try and open a door. She wasn’t home,” Chalmette resident Robert Santos said. “She was at work.”
“You really don’t know what’s going on Mr. Kidd’s side,” Pohlmann said. “It could be drugs. It could be mental illness. It could be he’s obviously having some kind of anger issues as well.”
Warner will now undergo surgery and months of rehabilitation and recovery.
His wife says what pains him most is the thought of not being there for the opening of school, the first week of August.
“When he asked the doctor how long the recovery would be the doctor said a couple of months,” Kitty Warner said. “He said that won’t do. I have to be back at school.”
Christopher Kidd was booked on counts of second-degree robbery, simple battery of the infirm, simple assault, shoplifting, resisting a police officer, and battery on a police officer.
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