Following a high-speed police chase that ended with crashing in a ditch in Luling Tuesday (Dec. 6), John Edward Aucoin was charged with DWI (fourth or more offense), hit-and-run driving and fleeing police.
Sheriff Greg Champagne reported Aucoin was driving a white TransAm that ran into several vehicles on U.S. Highway 90 before crashing on Monsanto Street in Mimosa Park Subdivision.
Aucoin, 46, of Houma, was charged with one count of DWI (fourth or more offense), two counts of hit-and-run driving, two counts of aggravated flight from an officer, and two counts of reckless operation of a vehicle.
The man collided with two cars – a black Ford Expedition and a Toyota Camry – before crashing into a power pole.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, he had a gunshot wound to this foot that he told police occurred in Harvey but provided no details on how it happened.
Witness Heather Dubois Ledbetter, resident of the 400 block of Monsanto Street, said she had just left Wal-Mart when she saw a white car in the St. Charles Plaza parking lot being chased by police.
“He went through the Smoothie King exit and almost hit me so I had to slam my brakes,” Ledbetter said. “Then he [Aucoin] turned down Maryland (Street) and the cop was behind me. Then, somehow while I was turning down our street, the cop chased him back to (Highway) 90. When I got to the stop sign before the canal, I had to run it because he was about to hit me. He crashed and the cops are screaming, ‘Put your hands up.’ I’m so lucky I ran the stop sign.”
Witness Madison Templet of Luling said she was sitting in her room at her residence in the 300 block of Monsanto Street when she heard sirens.
“You could hear them speeding from the highway on Monsanto Street,” Templet said. “You can hear the car flip a good two or three times. It hit my neighbor’s mailbox and landed in the ditch, and it hit the light pole.”
Templet said she ran out of her room, opened the front door and saw police cars approaching the vehicle. Deputies went to the vehicle on the driver’s side, and she saw what appeared to be a woman with the man in the vehicle.
“All I saw was the guy’s arm leaning out of the door and the sun roof in the car was smashed in,” she said. “I was not positive if he was trying to get out. It just kind of freaked me out. Cops came running and handcuffed him automatically.”
Aucoin was being held at Nelson Coleman Correctional Center as of presstime.
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