[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish sheriff's deputy shoots man who tried to hit them with vehicle

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish sheriff's deputy shoots man who tried to hit them with
vehicle

Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 8:55 PM     Updated: Tuesday, May 15,
2012, 9:00 PM

 By Bob Warren, The Times-Picayune 

At least one St. Bernard Parish narcotics deputy shot a 28-year-old New
Orleans man on Tuesday afternoon in Arabi after the suspect attempted to
escape by ramming his car into one deputy and nearly striking others,
according to information obtained from sheriff's officials and neighbors.
While sheriff's deputies did not release the suspect's name on Tuesday,
neighbors who said they knew the suspect identified him as David Cook and
said Cook was selling heroin out of his red Nissan, which had been a
frequent sight around the neighborhood.

The suspect's car is hauled away with bullet holes in the windshield after a
suspect tried to run over a sheriff deputy after a drug raid in Arabi on
Tuesday.

The deputy who was hit by Cook's vehicle had minor injuries and was not
taken to the hospital, according to sheriff's officials. Cook was rushed to
the LSU Trauma Center, where he was in guarded condition on Tuesday evening,
according to a Trauma Center staff member.

About 3 p.m. Tuesday, several narcotics deputies approached Cook on foot,
the sheriff's office said. Cook was in his car in the 6500 block of Chartres
Street.

Five blocks south of St. Claude Avenue, Chartres dead ends into Jackson
Barracks, just west of Angela Street. Cook allegedly was trapped at that
dead end, and his only way out was through the deputies, according to
Sheriff-elect Jimmy Pohlmann.

Pohlmann said on Tuesday afternoon that the Sheriff's Office was still
investigating the shooting, but that the deputies had approached the suspect
as part of a narcotics investigation and that "the suspected tried to flee
and hit one deputy, who had minor injuries, and nearly struck other
deputies." Pohlmann said at least one bullet hit the suspect and more than
one bullet pierced his Nissan's window.

"When we are dealing with narcotics investigations, it is a risky business,"
Pohlmann said. "Generally the drug dealers have guns and violence is
involved. We do the best we can when dealing with these situations." He
added that "a vehicle weighs thousands of pounds and is similar in nature to
a bullet."

Stacy Miller, 42, who lives down the block, said "it was just like a war
zone." She said "police cars were flying by" on Tuesday afternoon.

Miller and her fiance, Jeff Muhoberac, 35, said there have been several car
thefts and home burglaries in the neighborhood recently and sheriff's
deputies have been a common, and welcome, sight the past few weeks.

Miller said her son, a first-grader at Arabi Elementary, typically arrives
home on his school bus a little after 3 p.m.

"I'm just happy he didn't see this," she said, adding that Arabi Elementary
officials called parents from the neighborhood of the shooting and asked
them to pick up their children.

In recent weeks, St. Bernard sheriff's deputies have made several arrests
related to break-ins in the blocks around Tuesday's shooting.

Rusty Alphonso Jr., 28, who lived one block from Tuesday's shooting, was
booked last week with simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling in Chalmette.
He also is a suspect in several other burglaries and thefts, including some
in his Arabi neighborhood, Pohlmann has said.

Rodrick Natteel, 34, of New Orleans was arrested earlier this month in
Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard sheriff's deputies obtained a warrant tying
him to a April 27 break-in and aggravated battery that occurred in a home
near Tuesday's shooting. During that robbery, Natteel and others allegedly
forced the Arabi woman who lived there into her closet. The woman was not
injured.

Benjamin Alexander-Bloch can be reached at bbloch at timespicayune.com or
504.826.3321.



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