Man Fatally Shot After Police Chase in Shreveport
Shreveport, LA, Times

Klass, Kym, and Prine, John Andrew

March 17, 2003

Man fatally shot after police chase Kym Klass / The Times Posted on March 17, 2003 A Shreveport man was fatally shot by police late Saturday after a chase that began when he was observed driving erratically - two days after an unrelated police chase in which an officer was shot after a botched getaway attempt following an armored car robbery.

Saturday's 25-year-old shooting victim was identified Sunday by police as Marquise Hudspeth, of the 400 block of Seneca Trail. He was killed by Shreveport police just before midnight Saturday after a nearly five-mile chase that ended with his cellular phone being mistaken for a pistol.

Police Chief Jim Roberts said Hudspeth was observed driving "erratically, dangerously," and a chase between Hudspeth and police officers took off on North Market Street, proceeding four or five blocks to the intersection of North Market Street and North Hearne Avenue, then continued south to Midway Avenue, about six blocks south of Interstate 20.

"When police attempted to stop the vehicle, the driver refused to stop and continued driving erratically southbound on Hearne Avenue," said police spokeswoman Kacee Hargrave.

She said Cpl. Denver Ramsey and patrolmen Michael Armstrong and Steven Hathorn were about to end the pursuit when Hudspeth's gray Cadillac pulled into the parking lot of a closed Circle K just off Hearne Avenue, at Rightway and Midway avenues. Hudspeth left the car and walked away from the officers.

After ignoring several commands to stop, Hudspeth turned and pointed a "chrome, shiny" object that appeared to be a gun, but turned out to be a cellular phone, Roberts said.

"He was holding it like you'd hold a pistol in your hand," he said. "It was chrome, shiny, and he was holding it with two hands, as though it was a weapon." Roberts said the distance was "maybe four or five feet between the suspect and the officer."

Hudspeth's wife, Lekesha Hudspeth, said "it was real messed up with the way things were handled ... real messed up with what they say he did, the things they said he had done."

She couldn't comment on why her husband might have been driving "erratically" because "I don't know if that's true."

The three officers involved are on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, Hargrave said.

Roberts said multiple shots were fired at Hudspeth, although the exact number hasn't been determined. He said Hathorn and Ramsey fired the shots from their Glock .40-caliber handguns, which carry 15 rounds in the clip and one in the magazine. As detectives and crime-scene technicians collected evidence at the scene early Sunday, at least eight markers could be seen where shell casings were located.

The incident was captured on video, tapes of which Roberts reviewed Saturday night and early Sunday morning. He said he didn't know if alcohol played a factor in Hudspeth's behavior.

Hudspeth was black, as is the police supervisor in the chase. Ramsey, Armstrong and Hathorn are white.

Ramsey has been involved in a high-profile chase and police shooting before. In July 2000, Ramsey was one of three area police officers - two from Shreveport, one from Bossier City - struck and injured by a car driven by Noble Bates, a Frierson man with at least 61 arrests and 26 convictions. Bates was shot in the leg by one of the officers and was later sentenced to life in prison as a habitual offender.

Ramsey is also the Shreveport police officer who cited Shreveport Chief Administrative Officer Ken Antee for allegedly driving while intoxicated in August 2000. Those charges were later dropped by the Caddo Parish grand jury.

The last time officers fatally shot a suspect was April 2, 2001, when Walter Lee Dallas - who was wanted for attempted second-

degree murder - was killed after ignoring repeated police commands to drop his handgun at Kings Manor I apartments. Dallas, 21, was shot at least once in the chest.

The most recent incident in which a Shreveport officer was injured by gunfire and officers were forced to return fire was Thursday morning, when a band of armed men robbed an armored truck outside a west Shreveport bank branch. The robbers fled, but were pursued and then sought in a house-to-house operation in Bossier City's Greenacres subdivision by Shreveport and Bossier City police, Bossier Parish deputies, Louisiana state police and a number of federal officers. Six suspects were eventually arrested, with the last retrieved at 11 that night from a Magnolia tree in which he'd hidden.

In that drawn-out action, which drew national attention, Shreveport police officer Mark Sharbono was shot and wounded during the chase. Sharbono is recovering from a shattered bone in his left arm.

- John Andrew Prime contributed to this report.