SWARTZ, La. (AP) - A Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agent remained hospitalized Friday after being shot during a traffic stop in Ouachita Parish.
Sgt. Scott Bullitt was shot about 6:45 p.m. Thursday when he and another agent approached a vehicle near the Russell Sage Wildlife Management Area that they suspected was being driven by an impaired driver. State police say that 29-year-old Luke Jarrod Hust of Monroe shot Bullitt in the back while the agent was returning to his patrol vehicle. The other agent fired back and Hust fled into the woods.
Early Friday, Bullitt was transferred to University Health Shreveport, where he will be examined by a neurosurgeon. Trooper Michael Reichardt says the wounded officer remains in stable, but serious condition.
Hust was arrested about 11 p.m. at his home after more than 100 officers, including helicopters and bloodhounds, searched for him for about about four hours. The News-Star of Monroe (https://tnsne.ws/1Gul2gx ) reports that Hust told State Police that he shot the agent because he was a convicted felon and did not want to be caught with a firearm.
Hust was booked in the Ouachita Correctional Center on two counts of attempted first degree murder.
State police say the driver of the vehicle won’t be charged or identified.
Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham and the department’s chief enforcement officer, Col. Joey Broussard, visited the 32-year-old Bullitt at St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe before he was taken to Shreveport.
“He’s in stable condition, but the bullet is still lodged near the spine and he doesn’t have movement in his legs,” Barham said.
Broussard said Bullitt, a Jonesboro resident and five-year agent, “is alert but in a great deal of pain.”
“We’re just here to offer whatever support we can to Scott and his family and facilitate the transfer and make sure he receives whatever treatment he needs,” Barham said.
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Information from: The News-Star, https://www.thenewsstar.com
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