Ruston Police arrested two youths last week who had escaped a youth correction center near New Orleans.
Police said Mason Bendily, 17, and Derrick Jones, 18, absconded from the Bridge City Correctional Center for Youth, a state juvenile detention facility near New Orleans. Somehow they reached Ruston and allegedly tried to steal a vehicle at a rental car facility.
According to an officer’s report, Bendily and Jones were apprehended about 9 a.m. Friday at the Raceway convenience store on Farmerville Highway after police responded to a welfare concern call.
When officers arrived, the two youths entered the store as if they were fleeing police cars.
Officers suspected the pair had been involved in the attempted theft of a car from Enterprise Rent-A-Car earlier in the day. Surveillance video from Enterprise allegedly showed Bendily using a screwdriver to enter a Kia’s back window with Jones keeping watch. A black bag containing a slightly bent flathead screwdriver and reportedly belonging to Jones was found at Raceway.
Bendily and Jones were taken to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center and booked for attempted vehicle theft, simple escape, and simple burglary. They are also being held for the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice.
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.
