Ruston police catch man calling in report of stolen car
T. Scott Boatright, Reporter
08-06-2008
Local law enforcement officials believe they have a man in custody who allegedly fired a gunshot at a Grambling State University during a botched car burglary in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
The suspect was spotted around 4 a.m. Tuesday at on-campus apartments at Blalock and R.W.E. Jones Drive, near Robinson Stadium and the GSU Assembly Center, as he was apparently trying to break into cars.
Sgt. Freddie Peterson, who’s been with the GSU police department for over two years, spotted the suspect, but when the suspect spotted him, Peterson said the suspect fired one shot before fleeing on foot.
Left behind at the scene was a car unregistered to be on the GSU campus that contained burglary tools and was owned by 21-year-old Davente Jontavious Tucker of Groveland Street in Ruston. Tucker had an outstanding warrant in Ruston for possession of stolen things in excess of $300.
Tucker is not a student at GSU, said Michael McKinley, executive assistant to GSU president Horace Judson.
As an alert was put out for Tucker on Tuesday afternoon, he called the Ruston Police Department saying his car had been stolen. An officer on the phone recognized the name and the fact that the caller had an outstanding warrant and asked Tucker to come to the police department to file a report, said RPD Lt. Curtis Hawkins.
When Tucker showed up to file the report, he was arrested on the Ruston charges with a $3,000 bond set. Tucker has a state probation hold, which has no bond.
Additional charges against Tucker for the Grambling incident are expected to be filed today.
Grambling has recently installed more than 200 surveillance cameras to help with campus security, but the incident was not caught on film because the apartments where the incident occurred were built before GSU’s camera project began. GSU has plans to add over 100 more cameras as university construction continues.
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