Two men were arrested after a fight at a Ruston business left a door shattered and a doorman injured, police said.
Charles Venable, 20, of Baton Rouge, was arrested at 11:56 p.m. Oct. 22 by the Ruston Police Department. Tucker Gingles, 20, of Shreveport, was arrested at 1:04 a.m. Oct. 23.
According to arrest affidavits, an officer was dispatched at about 11:33 p.m. Oct. 22 to the downtown restaurant for a disturbance. A manager showed the officer video of the incident, which showed two men attacking the doorman.
The doorman told the officer the two men confronted him about confiscating a fake ID from one of them. One of the men then took the doorman’s vape pen from the table in front of him, the doorman said, and the two shoved him into the front door, shattering the glass. The door’s damage is estimated at about $6,500.
The doorman said he chased the men outside, where the vape pen was thrown into the roadway. He said it was in pieces when he retrieved it. As he tried to return to his post, the doorman said, the men came back and took an ID scanner and wristbands from the table. The manager valued those items at about $1,200.
The doorman said he tried to stop one of the men, and the two attacked him. He said one punched him and the other tackled him and slammed him into the sidewalk. According to Venable’s affidavit, Venable then swung a closed fist at the doorman but missed.
The men dropped the stolen items and fled. The doorman retrieved the items from the sidewalk.
Patrons at the restaurant identified Venable to the officer and said they would call him to meet police in front of the business. Venable arrived, and the doorman identified him as one of the men who attacked him. Gingles, who was identified by several patrons, turned himself in to Lincoln Parish Detention Center, where he was booked.
Both men were booked on charges of simple battery, felony theft, felony damage to property and disturbing the peace by fighting.
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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