Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s deputies are searching for a man who allegedly led law enforcement officers on a pursuit through several parishes on Saturday.
Evangeline Parish Sheriff Eddie Soileau says deputies located Samuel Damien Lee, of Ville Platte, traveling west on Old Park Road before heading north on U.S. 167.
Deputies tried pulling Lee over for having several felony warrants, but he refused to stop, leading deputies on a pursuit through Evangeline, Avoyelles, St. Landry, and Rapides parishes, Sheriff Soileau says.
Lee and an unidentified female accomplice abandoned the vehicle on a dirt road off of Cheneville Echo Road in Rapides Parish. The two suspects then fled into a nearby wildlife refuge, the sheriff says.
The Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office, Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, Bunkie Police Department, Cheneville Police Department, and Louisiana State Police Troop E tracked the suspects through the refuge for several hours before calling off the search because of weather conditions and safety concerns.
Soileau says the vehicle Lee was driving during the pursuit had been stolen in Jefferson Parish.
Deputies say Lee is known to carry a firearm and has an extensive criminal history involving auto theft.
If you see Lee, you are advised not to approach him and to call your local law enforcement agency.
