LSUPD and BRDP officers swarmed the Wal-Mart Neighborhood parking lot on Highland Road late Thursday night in pursuit of three men in a “follow up investigation to the most recent armed robbery on campus,” according to University officials.
University spokesperson Kristine Calongne said LSUPD officials believe there’s “at least some possibility” a car at the store matches the description of the car at the armed robbery crime scene on campus this past week.
Laura Boeke, assistant manager at the store, told The Daily Reveille that when she came out of the store, the car in question was surrounded by police. Witnesses said police officers hand their guns out while surrounding the vehicle. The store is located about two miles from campus.
Boeke said she was told LSUPD may have followed the car to the store and approached the vehicle once it entered the parking lot. Once the vehicle arrived, officers surrounded the car.
According to a Wal-Mart employee, one of the three men worked at the store. She said police officers entered the store to apprehend that employee. It is unclear where the third suspect was confronted.
LSUPD said it has made no arrests, Calongne said, though eyewitnesses at the scene maintain that three people were handcuffed and placed into three separate LSUPD vehicles.
The car on the scene was a late-1990s model, light blue Chrysler New Yorker.
The incident appeared to start around 10:20 p.m. The last man of the three was taken from the scene at 11:32 p.m.
At least five BRPD vehicles were on the scene plus seven LSUPD cars. About 12 officers were also on the scene.
The most recent armed robbery on campus occurred around 3:30 a.m. Saturday when three college-aged people were held at gun point on campus.
Two females and a male were walking across a parking lot near Chimes and Cypress streets when they were approached by a young male wearing a bandana who robbed the three victims at gunpoint, said LSU Police Department spokeswoman Maj. Helen Haire.
LSUPD said Cypress Street turns into Alaska street near the softball field on the north side of campus.
The suspect then left the scene in a waiting vehicle that fled down Alaska and Chimes streets toward Nicholson Drive.
Haire said the male victim ran after the fleeting vehicle when the vehicle stopped and a shot was fired toward the victims. No injures have been reported, Haire said.
Haire said the victim described the robber’s gun as a rifle.