Ruston Police arrested a West Monroe woman after she allegedly struck a male friend several times in a local hotel.
Officers responded to the Holiday Inn Express about 11:00 p.m. Sunday. A man told officers he had picked up his girlfriend Evelyn Byers-Payton, 23, at a friend’s house and there was no problem until they got into the elevator at the hotel. At that time, Byers-Payton allegedly began swinging at him for no reason, according to the man. He told officers he struck back to get the woman off him and then stopped.
The hotel clerk said the man and Byers-Payton were walking toward the elevator when she said, “I’m not letting you up the elevator until you give me the money.” The clerk said after they got on the elevator, she received several calls about hearing screams in the elevator. The clerk said when the two came back to the lobby, the man was calm, but Byers-Payton was the aggressive one.
Byers-Payton was arrested booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center for battery of a dating partner.
Bail was set at $2,500.
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.
