ST. BERNARD PARISH, La. — Imagine getting into your car and then seeing someone pointing a gun at you, well that happened to one St. Bernard Parish man. Then those criminals went on to steal a car with a child in the back.
Barry Lemoine is a New Orleans native, never did he think he’d be the victim of an attempted carjacking.
“I just thought it was someone going to ask for directions,” Lemoine said. “We got in the car, we locked the doors and started the engine. I looked to my left and there was car to the left me that was idling, and it just seemed strange, so I turned to my wife and said something seems off. And then the dome light of that car went out and the door opened.”
Right off St. Bernard highway, near Paris Road, out jumped two people, both pointing guns at Barry and his wife.
According to Chad Clark, Chief of Detectives with the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office, the same people who tried to carjack Lemoine stole a car just around the corner. Inside that car was a 6-year-old.
“It started around 6:49 pm last night, sheriff's office received a call about a stolen vehicle and there was a six-year-old child in the vehicle," Detective Clark said.
He said the child was left inside the car while the parents went inside the store.
“Customers were in there and they came out screaming as I'm walking out to see what's going on their car is being driven off by someone and all they kept screaming was my baby, my baby,” a witness said.
The child was found in an abandoned Kia SUV in Chalmette, originally stolen from New Orleans according to Police.
“I think when the two suspects saw there was a juvenile inside the vehicle, there was another vehicle they had that was reported stolen out of New Orleans they used in a prior crime just minutes before this crime occurred so that vehicle was placed just blocks from the scene and they were able to take the female and put her inside the vehicle,” Detective Clark said.
The child and everyone involved was uninjured.