A Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office patrol supervisor arrested a 47-year-old man early last Friday morning after a high-speed pursuit in which bags of suspected methamphetamine and marijuana were thrown from the vehicle.
Just after midnight, the patrol supervisor saw a Nissan SUV make a from the I-20 Service Road onto Tarbutton Road from the wrong lane. The vehicle almost hit the curb and had to stop and maneuver abruptly to make the turn. When the deputy attempted to stop the SUV, it immediately sped up, running the stop sign at Tarbutton Road and La. Highway 150. The vehicle continued west on La. 150 at speeds over 100 miles an hour, leaving the roadway multiple times. At one point, the vehicle left the roadway completely, driving through the ditch and back onto the roadway. On three occasions during the pursuit, the driver threw bags out the driver’s side window.
The SUV stopped in the 2000 block of Martin Luther King Avenue in Grambling and the driver, Melvin J. Williams, surrendered. He was taken into custody.
Officers from Louisiana Tech Police, Grambling Police and Lincoln Parish deputies located two of the three bags. One of the bags contained suspected methamphetamine in multiple individually wrapped bags and the second suspected marijuana contained in multiple individually wrapped bags.
Williams said the drugs were his and not the passenger’s. He was taken to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center and booked for aggravated flight from an officer, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. Bail was set at $62,500.
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.
