11-13-17
THE LAFAYETTE FIRE DEPARTMENT IS SEEKING A PERSON OF INTEREST IN AN ATTEMPTED ARSON. JEFF HORCHAK HAS THE DETAILS.
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OAKDALE POLICE AND THE ALLEN PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE IS ASKING THE PUBLIC TO BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR AN ESCAPED PSYCHIATRIC PATIENT. CHEVY EAVES JUMPED OUT THE BACK OF AN AMBULANCE IN WHICH HE WAS BEING TRANSPORTED FROM KINDER TO ALEXANDRIA. EAVES, WHO WAS WEARING A RED SHIRT, GREY SWEATPANTS AND NO SHOES, WAS LAST SEEN IN THE WOODS BEHIND THE TRACTOR SUPPLY STORE IN OAKDALE. IF YOU SEE EAVES, YOU ARE URGED NOT TO APPROACH HIM BUT CALL THE AUTHORITIES.
TWO BLACK MEN WERE SHOT MULTIPLE TIMES WHILE DRIVING WESTBOUND ON I-TEN IN RAYNE SATURDAY MORNING, ACCORDING TO THE RAYNE POLICE DEPARTMENT. AFTER THE SHOOTING, THEY DROVE TO THE POLICE DEPARTMENT AND SOMEONE WALKED IN AND TOLD THEM ABOUT THE SHOOTING VICTIMS IN THE PARKING LOT. CHIEF CARROLL STELLY SAYS THE SHOOTING WAS THE RESULT OF A FEUD BETWEEN ONE OF THE VICTIM’S AND HIS EX-WIFE’S BOYFRIEND. ONE OF THE MEN WAS TAKEN TO LAFAYETTE FOR SURGERY WHILE THE OTHER WAS DETAINED BY CROWLEY POLICE FOR QUESTIONING IN CONNECTION TO THE SHOOTING.
Fifteen Louisiana schools will receive grants to help them promote healthy eating and physical activity. Louisiana’s education and health departments announced Thursday that federally-funded grants of $5,000 are available to applicants that meet a list of criteria aimed at supporting healthier school environments. The schools will need to agree to incorporate nutrition education into classrooms and to promote health messaging. To be eligible, schools must participate in certain federally-financed school meal programs.
Louisiana-based IberiaBank is creating a regional headquarters in Hoover, Alabama, that will eventually house more than 450 employees. The Advocate reports IberiaBank, based in Lafayette, has outgrown its Birmingham location and will move the 225 employees who work there to an existing 130,000-square-foot office building in Hoover. The company also plans to consolidate more than 225 jobs from throughout the Southeast to Hoover. Officials say none of those positions will come from Louisiana.
ONE MAN WAS KILLED IN AN ACCIDENT ON I-TEN IN JEFF DAVIS PARISH EARLY SATURDAY MORNING. THE DRIVER OF A 1975 OLDSMOBILE ATTEMPTED TO PULL ONTO THE HIGHWAY FROM THE SHOULDER ABOUT TWO MILES WEST OF EXIT 64 IN JENNINGS AND INTO THE PATH OF AN ONCOMING GMC YUKON. THE DRIVER AND TWO PASSENGERS IN THE OLDSMOBILE MANAGED TO ESCAPE FROM THE CAR, WHICH CAUGHT ON FIRE, BUT A PASSENGER IN THE YUKON, 45-YEAR-OLD CARL J. MELITOS OF PEARLAND, TEXAS, WAS KILLED WHEN HE WAS PARTIALLY EJECTED FROM THE VEHICLE AS IT ROLLED. THE DRIVER OF THE YUKON, BARNEY JAMES OAKLEY, WAS ARRESTED AFTER HE WAS SEEN THROWING A BAG FROM THE VEHICLE CONTAINING APPROXIMATELY ONE POUND OF METHAMPHETAMINE, PLUS INVESTIGATORS DETERMINED HE WAS IMPAIRED.
Louisiana’s governor and agriculture commissioner are planning a bipartisan listening tour across several rural communities to tour farms and talk with agricultural and forestry producers. Republican Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain announced that he and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards will have six stops on the tour, with events scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Strain’s office says the gatherings will give people in the agricultural community an opportunity to ask questions of the two statewide elected officials and discuss their concerns. The tour opens Tuesday at Wooldridge Cattle Company in Mooringsport and includes a stop in Ville Platte before wrapping up Friday at Olivier Farms in Arnaudville.
The competition to be Louisiana’s next treasurer is entering its final week. The two candidates in the Nov. 18 runoff are sparring over the role of the state’s money manager and their qualifications for the job. But Democrat Derrick Edwards and Republican John Schroder have had trouble drawing interest to the race. Schroder is a former state House member, ex-law enforcement official and businessman from St. Tammany Parish while Edwards is a lawyer from Jefferson Parish.
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