NEW ORLEANS — A chain of events that led to the identification and arrest of the second suspect in the Canal Street mass shooting was kicked off when a small-town marshal’s office grew suspicious after the suspect arrived at an Iberia Parish hospital.
LaBryson Polidore, 22, of Jeanrette, was booked shortly after midnight Wednesday into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison as a fugitive. He is wanted in New Orleans on 10 counts of attempted murder in the shooting that wounded 12 people – including Polidore himself – in a gun battle in the early morning hours after the Bayou Classic.
Polidore’s arrest came hours after New Orleans police announced the arrest of another suspect, Stafford Starks, 21, at his home in St. Mary Parish Tuesday morning.
The shooting amid a large and heavily policed crowd at about 3:30 a.m. marred a festive weekend and drew unwanted national attention to a city that is no stranger to mass shootings after large events.
Polidore first came to the attention of police shortly after he checked himself into the Iberia Medical Center with gunshot wounds to his foot and arm. The Jeanrette City Marshal’s office was summoned to the hospital to interview Polidore, City Marshal Fernest “Pacman” Martin said in an interview with WWL-TV.
“We brought an investigator to interview him, and he was saying he was shot in the Jeanrette area, close to where he lives,” Martin said.
But when investigators canvassed the neighborhood, they immediately became suspicious about Polidore’s story.
“We started knocking on doors and nothing backed up his story,” Martin said. “There was no ballistics evidence, nobody heard shots, nothing. That brought concern to us.”
After hearing about the shooting and knowing that the Bayou Classic is a huge draw among Jeanrette residents, Martin said he contacted the New Orleans Police Department.
“Everybody around here goes to the Bayou Classic that weekend,” he said.
New Orleans detectives provided Jeanrette marshals with security camera video that showed one of the shooters. Martin said there was a strong resemblance between the shooter in the video and Polidore, a match that he said he confirmed by linking clothing worn by the shooter to Polidore.
“We called the New Orleans police right away and said, ‘Come on down.’ We were able to positively identify him,” Martin said.
But by the time Jeanrette marshals made the identification, Polidore had checked out of the hospital, Martin said. And when officers went to his home, he wasn’t’ there either, he said.
At that point, Martin said he provided information to the NOPD and U.S. Marshal’s Service, including the fact that Polidore’s mother and a girlfriend live in the Baton Rouge area.
Based on that information, Polidore was captured in Baton Rouge shortly after midnight, the NOPD said.
“It’s unfortunate that those individuals are from the Jeanrette area,” Martin said. “But we just thank God that this didn’t result in a fatality. It could have been much worse.”
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