Ruston Police arrested a man Tuesday after he allegedly beat a woman and took her car.
Officers responded to a complaint of a woman in distress near the EZ Mart on South Vienna St. about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. The woman was found at the corner of South Trenton St. and West Vaughn Ave.
The frantic woman said her boyfriend, Kelvin W Griffin, 40, of Ruston, had pulled her hair and beaten her with a closed fist when she attempted to get her car keys from him. The woman had disheveled hair and a small bleeding scratch on the right side of her face. She said she cut Griffin with a small knife to get away from him and out of the car.
Police found the car and Griffin nearby. Griffin had blood on his clothing and was bleeding from a laceration on his hand. Griffin denied an altercation occurred or having the woman’s car key which was found in his back pocket.
Griffin said he struck his hand on the car door when exiting causing the wound. After he was placed under arrest, Griffin said the woman “struck him with the knife and he was the one going to jail.”
Griffin was booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center for domestic abuse battery. Bail had not been set at press time, but a hold had been placed on Griffin by the Louisiana Department of Corrections—Probation & Parole.
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.
