On Tuesday, October 14, 2014, at 4:52 pm, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to Big River Food and Fuel at 1173 East Airline Highway in LaPlace for the report of an armed robbery. The store clerk told deputies that a black male subject wearing a red plaid shirt approached the counter and told her to give him everything out the register. He removed a handgun from his front waistband and pointed at her. The clerk surrendered cash from the register drawer to the perpetrator who fled in a bronze or champagne colored Pontiac Grand Am. No one was injured. 911 dispatchers issued a BOLO notifying adjacent agencies about the incident providing descriptions of the perpetrator and his car.
Kenner Police Department Officers stopped a car that matched the description of the perpetrator and his car and notified St. John the Baptist Parish investigators. Over the course of the investigation, investigators identified the driver as the perpetrator of the armed robbery. He was identified as Reginald Smith, 37, of Kenner. Smith was arrested on unrelated charges in Kenner. He was transferred to St. John the Baptist Parish Wednesday and booked with armed robbery with the use of a firearm, a fugitive warrant from St. Charles Parish, and probation/parole violation. His bond has not been set.