A Ruston man was arrested after a home invasion robbery was reported on West Vaughn Avenue Thursday night.
At about 12:40 a.m., a Ruston police officer on patrol heard a man yell for assistance in the 100 block of West Vaughn Avenue. The officer stopped and met with a resident who said a man had just entered his home, pointed a gun at him, and stole his purse and cell phone. The victim stated the suspect rode away on a bicycle heading south on Trenton Street.
The officer had just observed the suspect prior to hearing the victim’s call for assistance and quickly relocated him on the bicycle in the 1400 block of South Trenton and attempted to stop him. The suspect, later identified as Jeremiah Emanuel Thomas, 24, of Ruston, looked back at the officer and then reached for his waistline. As the officer stopped the patrol car, the suspect jumped off the bicycle and threw away a handgun into a ditch. He ran away with the officer giving chase.
A witness who was walking by stated the suspect had hidden under a house. After several minutes of calling the suspect a surrender to himself to officers, he crawled out from under the house.
Thomas reportedly admitted to taking the purse but denied possessing a firearm. Officers recovered a .22 revolver from the ditch.
Thomas was taken to the Ruston Police Department for questioning and then transported to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center. Thomas gave an incorrect birth date to officers. He was booked for armed robbery, unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, illegal carrying of a weapon, flight from an officer, and resisting an officer by a false information and other charges. Bail was set at $817,000.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
