A Ruston man was arrested Saturday morning after police responded to a reported disturbance and found a man had illegally entered an apartment.
About midnight Saturday, Ruston Police officers responded to a Highland Street apartment where a woman told them she was lying on her couch when she heard the front door handle shake. She recognized the voice of Eric Watson, 38. The woman told Watson she had COVID and not to come inside. She then heard sounds like something scraping on metal at the front door and then Watson came inside.
The woman said she contacted police by pretending to call for a pizza delivery. The woman said Watson had brought a knife with him and placed it on the end table by her couch.
Watson said the woman led him inside and that he did not break in. However, police saw that the metal around the door latch had been bent outward with scratches and marks visible on the bent metal. The tip of the knife was also bent.
Watson was arrested for unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling and booked at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center.
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.
