by Wesley Harris
A man is in custody after he kidnapped an ex-girlfriend from her job and tried to run her down with her own vehicle in Ruston Thursday evening.
Ruston Police officers responded to a reported disturbance in the area of North Service Road and La. Highway 33 regarding a report of a man actively assaulting a woman shortly before 5:00 p.m. Thursday.
Officers located a female victim with visible injuries, including a bleeding laceration on her head. She said her ex-boyfriend, Willie Joe Wilson Jr., 36, of Farmerville, forcibly took her from her place of employment on the Service Road and compelled her to enter her vehicle with him.
The woman was able to lock Wilson out of her car, she said, but he jumped on the vehicle, damaging the hood. When he asked her to take him to his mother’s, she agreed but Wilson allegedly began strangling her the moment he entered the vehicle.
Wilson is under an active protective order to stay away from the victim, police said.
The woman said she was eventually able to escape from the vehicle; however, Wilson then attempted to run her down with the vehicle multiple times before fleeing the scene in her car.
Witnesses at the scene corroborated the victim’s account of events, according to police. The victim’s vehicle was found at a nearby gas station.
Following the preliminary investigation, RPD investigators obtained arrest warrants for Wilson.
Wilson turned himself in at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center. He was arrested and booked for attempted second degree murder, simple kidnapping, theft of a motor vehicle, simple criminal damage to property, violation of a protective order, two warrants for failure to appear in Ruston City Court on traffic charges, and a warrant from Third District Court for DWI.
This remains an active investigation. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact the Ruston Police Department at (318) 255-4141.
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.
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