The latest escape from the Bridge City juvenile detention center on Sunday sparked a 15-hour trail of destruction by six juveniles on both sides of the river. Fifteen juveniles had previously escaped from the troubled lockup over the past year-and-a-half, but this weekend’s jailbreak was the largest and most violent yet.
At least three police agencies – the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, New Orleans Police Department and State Police – were involved in the chase and capture of the suspects, both by car, helicopter and on foot.
The first victim was 49-year-old Dewayne Anderson, whose pickup truck was stolen several miles away near Nine Mile Point by five of the escapees. They commandeered the truck within a couple of hours of their escape at about 2:30 a.m., police said.
Anderson said he was unaware that his vehicle was stolen until he heard a knock at his door at about 5 a.m. That’s when he learned that not only was his truck stolen, but it had rammed into a Jefferson Parish police cruiser several times before crashing as it careened into the woods.
“The five that stole my truck, they were apprehended at the scene of the crash,” Anderson said. “They thought the sixth one was there, but he wasn’t.”
That’s because the sixth escaped juvenile, a repeat violent offender from New Orleans, stole a different truck from the same area, a large industrial vehicle belonging to the company where Anderson works.
That 17-year-old escapee ended up in New Orleans, where his crime spree took an especially violent turn.
At about 4:15 p.m. that afternoon, police say the juvenile – along with a female companion – carjacked and shot a man at the corner of Nashville and Loyola avenues. According to witnesses, the man was donating used Mardi Gras beads at ARC-GNO when the pair took his car, abandoning the work truck.
Bystanders at the busy intersection called 9-1-1, one witness said, but with the victim bleeding from two gunshot wounds to the torso, one passer-by also called a nearby medical doctor, who was soon joined by three other physicians who compressed the man’s wounds and kept him alert until an ambulance could arrive.
The victim remained in the hospital Monday, police said.
“I hope and pray that the gentleman who was shot recovers from his wounds,” Anderson said.
That final suspect, along with his female companion, were caught more than an hour later after a chase that ended in a crash on St. Bernard Avenue near North Rocheblave Street.
Anderson, meanwhile, had to skip work Monday to retrieve his wrecked truck and estimate the damages.
“I'm basically looking at having thousands of dollars’ worth of work done, more than the truck is probably worth,” he said.
Anderson said the blame extends beyond the six juveniles themselves.
“If you can't maintain a bunch of juveniles and keep them from escaping, then you don't need to be in business the way I look at it,” he said. “It’s just a chain of events that could have been avoided if security was a little better.”
In addition the escape and auto theft charges that all of the juveniles are facing in Jefferson Parish, New Orleans police say the juvenile involved in the carjacking and his juvenile female companion, have been booked with armed robbery with a firearm and attempted second-degree murder.
That escapee was sent to the Bridge City lockup after a string of charges in New Orleans that included armed robbery, aggravated assault, auto theft, aggravated flight from an officer, illegal possession of a gun and illegal possession of stolen goods, according to Jefferson Parish Councilman Deano Bonano.
The previous escapes from the Bridge City lockup have sparked calls for its closure from a host of elected officials and nearby residents. The most recent breach was in June when five juveniles escaped and about 20 others staged a riot and took over the complex within a 24-hour period. The It took
hours before a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office SWAT team was able to restore order.