Ruston Police arrested a Downsville man Friday evening after some unusual behavior at a local elementary school.
Police received a call of a man sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of Hillcrest Elementary firing an electric nail gun at the school. School was not in session at the time.
The caller said the man left the area and followed them to an address on Foxxwood Drive, parking in the driveway of a residence where he did not live. The caller said the man drove over to the caller’s location and mimed pulling a gun from his back seat and firing it at them.
The suspect left the scene but was located nearby by responding officers and stopped.
The driver, Thomas Hamilton, 33, appeared to be under the influence of an intoxicant other than alcohol, according to police. Hamilton displayed numerous physical indicators of impairment but refused field sobriety tests. A search of the vehicle using a police dog led to the recovery of THC gummies on the front seat. Hamilton claimed the items but said the gummies were legal despite containing THC, a Schedule I controlled substance. He would not respond to questions about how many he had consumed prior to driving.
Hamilton was arrested and booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center for DWI first offense, possession of THC, and criminal mischief.
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.
