Suspect booked in holdup of shrimp seller

Suspect booked in holdup of shrimp seller
2nd man sought in LaPlace robbery
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
By Victoria St. Martin
River Parishes bureau
A 31-year-old LaPlace man was booked with armed robbery after authorities say he and an accomplice stole 100 pounds of shrimp at gunpoint early Friday morning, a St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman said Monday.
Sheriff's Office spokesman Capt. Dane Clement said deputies booked Gerald Brown on Friday at 3:30 p.m. after a victim identified him as the robber.
Clement said Brown and an unidentified man stole shrimp, a wallet and a cell phone from a 20-year-old LaPlace man shortly before 3 a.m. Friday. Parish authorities later tied Brown to the incident via a license plate number from the getaway car, he said. Brown's accomplice remains at large, Clement said.
Just after the robbery the victim flagged down a deputy. He reported that he had agreed to follow the two men to Cardinal Street to sell them shrimp but they instead robbed him, according to a Sheriff's Office report.
The report said the victim was forced to give up his ice chest full of shrimp and his personal belongings. Clement said the robbers fled in a car.
Brown was being held Monday in the Sherman Walker Correctional Facility in LaPlace in lieu of $200,000 bond.
Anyone with information about the robbery may contact Detective Staty Lewis at 985.652.9513.
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Victoria St. Martin can be reached at vstmartin@timespicayune.com or at 985.652.0952.