MANCHAC, La. — In St. John Parish, police are on the lookout for a man who jumped off the I-55 bridge near Manchac.
State police tried to pull over a driver just north of the Manchac Bridge for a traffic violation. Troopers say he crashed his vehicle about three miles south of the bridge near mile marker 12 and leaped off the elevated span into the water. State police and the St. John Sheriff’s Office actively searched for the suspect for about three hours.
They have since scaled back the search considerably. A state police helicopter searched for the man from the air along the interstate. So far, troopers have not been able to locate the man who may be hiding out in the nearby swamp.
Police have impounded the suspect’s crashed vehicle.
One man fishing in the Rudock area says there are plenty of places where the suspect could be hiding out if he’s familiar with the terrain.
“There’s abandoned houses and all kinds of things in the woods,” fisherman Steven Busby said. “If you just go through this little bayou over here and hang a right, there’s an old, abandoned camp right here and a pontoon barge, there’s a million places out here. It may not be 100 percent dry land but he dang sure wait them out.”
Busby said the swamp is no place to be after dark.
“You all come back at night and shine your light across here, you can walk across this bayou in alligators. When the sun goes down, we have to leave because they’ll get on your line.”
Middendorf’s restaurant employees in Manchac say the situation makes them a bit nervous.
“It just kind of makes me nervous because everybody is going back and forth,” Middendorf’s hostess Kristen Bordelon. “They’re all in their cars all day and I have to be here all day and leave tonight not knowing whether he caught or not.”
It is unclear why state police were trying to stop the man.
All troopers would say is it was for a traffic violation.
He will likely face additional charges when he’s caught.
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