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A mass slashing of tires on cars along a quiet Houma street last week drew a mixture of ire and tears from residents who awoke to find themselves victims.
The arrest of a young man from that same neighborhood days later resulted in expected scorn not only toward the suspect but also members of his family. Even so, a number of responses revealed more benevolence than might be expected.
“I live right across the street from the boy and he has had a rough life with very little supervision,” said one woman whose car was vandalized. “He needs mental help.”
Houma police were called Sunday morning to Walnut Street, which runs through a small enclave bordered by the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, Bayou Terrebonne and New Orleans Boulevard, a short distance from downtown Houma.
HPD Chief Dana Coleman said about 11 vehicles were damaged, with 22 tires slashed overall.
“As the investigation continued, Houma Police began viewing video surveillance within the area and were able to identify a suspect,” Coleman said.
Chase Garner, an apparently aimless 19-year-old whose family history and social travails are well known to some on and around Walnut Street, was cooperative after his arrest, Coleman said. He was a booked on a charge of simple criminal damage to property over $500, and is being held in lieu of a $15,000 bond.
As Garner’s booking photo spread through traditional and social media, neighbors who did not know his name made an immediate connection. They recalled Garner as one of a swaggering, tattooed gaggle of post-adolescents who routinely parade through the area but are generally considered more annoyance than menace.
“A bunch of bad people,” is how Garner’s older sister, Hailey Guidry, describes the companions, who are not implicated in the tire-slashing incident.Walnut Street neighbor, who put an assault rifle into Garner’s hands a while back, Guidry said. The neighbor, a gun collector, had showed it to her brother and he asked if he could have a picture taken with it, she said.
The photo of Garner with that gun resulted in concerns from other neighbors who viewed it on his own Facebook page, as they researched the young man authorities
said was responsible for the tire massacre.
Guidry recognizes the crime her brother is accused of violates not just the law but a social contract of sorts. Grief-stricken by the arrest and jailing of her brother, she expresses additional distress at the Walnut Street victims’ pain.
“People work hard for their money,” she said. “It’s not like everybody has $400 to spend for new tires.”
In a blanket apology that ran on several Houma-based Facebook pages that carried news of Garner’s arrest, Guidry offered condolence, but tried to also vouch for his humanity.
“I apologize to all the people that my little brother hurt and inconvenienced. He was not always like this people, so please keep your comments light. The boy is just in a
bad place in his life and needs help and guidance,” she wrote. “I love my brother but I believe that things happen for a reason and this just may save his life. No, I am not saying that I’m sorry for him, but my heart truly does ache for him and I wish him nothing but the best. Again, my family apologies for his actions.”
Pamela Mouton, Garner and Guidry’s mother, says she tried setting her son straight when behavioral problems began to appear, at the age of around 11 or 12.
Mouton said she tried to find help or programs, but was told by local officials that nothing could be done for Garner unless and until he was charged with a crime and placed in the juvenile justice system.
It didn’t take long, Mouton said, and stays at the Terrebonne Juvenile Detention Center began. But the focus, she notes, was punitive.
Finally, she said, Juvenile Court Judge Jude Fanguy got him placed at the American Marine Institute in Raceland, a vocational school that has won great praise but fell to
the state budget axe.
Eventually Garner found work in Destrehan. Family members were relieved because it kept him away from the street influences. But it didn’t last.
A family history intertwined with addiction and alcoholism, coupled with a return to Houma, Guidry said, were stronger influences than the few positives.
Garner, she said, became too comfortable with his outsider status.
Guidry credits her grandmother’s love and intervention with her own ability to hold down a job and care for her infant. The loss of a sister, Sonya Tyre, who had a history of drug and alcohol-related problems, hit the siblings hard a few years back.
Effective counseling, addiction treatment and anger management training, Guidry said, are what she hopes the criminal justice system will provide for her brother.
The only people living in the family home – on Elm Street, which intersects Walnut – are her brother and their father; the two have not gotten along for some time, she said.
On a visit last week, prior to the incident, Guidry says she argued with her brother. She said “alcohol and Zanbars” may have influenced Garner’s alleged behavior.
Zanbar is a street name for Xanax, a drug used to treat severe anxiety, which is also popular with drug abusers.
“He was vulgar and violent toward me,” she said. “I couldn’t help him. He was just doing the drugs and drank for the next couple of days.”
Minor in comparison to crimes of violence against people, the random tire-slashing has had effects on the victims that rise above the mere expense of replacement, something most who have spoken about the crime say should be demanded of Garner.
The bottom line is a difficult one for some families who have been forced to weather.
Timothy Kramer, a disabled former construction worker, was horrified when he found one tire slashed on his Chevrolet sedan, as well as tires on the van his girlfriend, Geri Faye, drives.
“I just bought these tires and they are brand new,” said Kramer, who arranged installment payments at Budget Tires on Main Street, the only way he could afford
to pay for them.
The tire payments ate into his income, and now he is not certain what he will do, other than drive the Cavalier on a donut replacement.
Despite the cost and inconvenience, Kramer said he wishes Garner well.
“I would tell him everyone is saying he needs help,” said Kramer, when asked what he would say to Garner if they spoke. “I wish I could talk to him. I would tell him to talk to me, that I have been around the block a couple of times, try to get him straight and on the right track. What the law does is what the law does. I just want my tires and hope they get him some help. If you lock someone like him up they learn from the older guys then they come out worse. I go fishing sometimes. I would ask him if he would want to go fishing with me. Go fishing and let’s talk.”
