NEW ORLEANS — "It started off with ‘we have some bad news.’ So your mind just runs amok. You're like, whoa, what kind of bad news?” Elizabeth Hansard said.
This is how Noah Hansard’s mother describes receiving the news that the man accused of putting her son in a wheelchair was on the loose.
Just before noon on Monday morning, The DA’s office received notification that Tata Say had tampered with his ankle bracelet.
“No one knowing where he was, was a little worrying,” shooting victim Noah Hansard said.
Say is accused of shooting Noah Hansard last year during a robbery, leaving him paralyzed.
“I've always been a little worry checking my shoulders, because I've always feared that, like there's some kind of retaliation going to come,” Hansard said. “Just like having them just running around.”
After the ankle bracelet monitoring company notified law enforcement, Say was back in custody in under 24 hours.
“It worked beautifully,” Elizabeth Hansard said. “And I will say, I think it sends a message to anybody out in the city who's currently wearing an ankle monitor bracelet that they better adhere to what the courts have told them. Otherwise, they will be apprehended swiftly.
Matt Dennis with A.S.A.P., the ankle bracelet company, said that efficient communication was a large component of capturing Say so quickly.
“In this instance, we were able to communicate with the DA's office,” Dennis said. “We said we need help with getting to the victim. They were immediately able to get to the victim. So, they were very, very fast, not only to get to the victim, but to start the motions that are needed to do things like revoke the bond, get the warrants and do all the other things necessary to get the ball rolling for the other law enforcement entities. So very fast response.”
Tata Say is now jailed at the Orleans Justice Center.
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