LAFOURCHE PARISH, La. — A Tuesday night car chase between a man and Assumption Parish Deputies ended one parish over, on the Jackson Street Bridge in Thibodaux.
That’s where police say Calvin Johnson, 30, jumped out of a moving car, then off the bridge into Bayou Lafourche.
“Looked like he was maybe struggling, trying to swim,” said Lieutenant Clint Dempster with the Thibodaux Police Department. “Officers then went into the water to try to render aid at which time the subject went back under, and he never came back up,”
Dempster says Johnson’s body was found a few hours later, early Wednesday morning. It was a cadaver dog from St. Charles Parish that helped search crews find him.
“That was a big asset to us in locating the body, actually not far from where he was seen going down,” Dempster said.
According to the Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Office, the chase started around 10:30 p.m. near Labadieville, about ten miles away. A deputy noticed Johnson was driving a car with a headlight out. When another deputy tried to stop him, authorities say Johnson sped off, starting a chase that hit more than a hundred miles an hour.
“Somewhere along the way we intercepted the pursuit, joined them. It took us to the Jackson Street Bridge,” Dempster said.
Authorities say the car Johnson was driving belonged to his girlfriend who told investigators she didn’t know he took it.
“We do have the vehicle that was used in the pursuit here at the station which will undergo a search warrant,” Dempster said.
Dempster says Johnson, who lived in Assumption Parish, does have an active warrant in Thibodaux for a minor offense, but nothing beyond that.
Assumption Parish authorities say he wasn’t wanted for anything there and don’t know why he fled.
“It’s unfortunate for both us and of course the victim’s family and the victim himself,” Dempster said.
An autopsy is set to be done here in Lafourche Parish to determine the cause of death.
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