Mississippi fugitives arrested in parish
Published 1:02 pm Friday, August 25, 2017
Two escaped fugitive inmates from Mississippi were apprehended this week in Washington Parish, according to Chief Deputy Mike Haley of the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Haley said that on Thursday, WPSO detectives, along with the Drug Task Force, arrested Dustin Hunter Rushing, 22, a resident of Roxie, Miss., and James Anthony Williams, 26, a resident of Greenwood, Miss. Both men were booked into the Washington Parish Jail on charges of being fugitives from the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The men will be held without bond awaiting extradition to the state of Mississippi, Haley said.
Rushing and Williams escaped from a restitution center operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Mississippi restitution centers are a work-release type of program, which allows inmates to work outside of the facility and earn money to provide restitution to victims, Haley said.
Mississippi authorities notified the WPSO that the men likely were headed to Bogalusa to obtain a money order being sent to them at Walmart from a person in Mississippi, Haley said. Officers staked out the business and observed the two men enter. While the men were at the service counter, officers entered the store and took them into custody without incident. Meanwhile, Mississippi authorities have identified the person who sent the money order to the two suspects and will take appropriate action there, Haley said.
“This is yet another example of the fine cooperation we have with law enforcement agencies throughout the nation,” Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal said. “The knuckleheads apparently haven’t figured this out. It takes only seconds for information to be transmitted from one jurisdiction to another. Once we receive information from another agency that involves Washington Parish, we act quickly.
“In this matter, everything fell into place just as predicted — our fine officers arrested the fugitives and the fugitives went to jail. I appreciate the Bogalusa Police Department securing the immediate area around Walmart, during this operation.”