Bridge encounter turns ugly

Houma’s chief of police is praising a team of officers credited with keeping a bad situation from becoming worse in Monday’s wee hours.

Chief Dana Coleman said that at around 1:38 a.m. Friday, officers responded to the Houma twin span bridge, after receiving a call that a man was walking in traffic.

Levi Brown, 31, was approached and asked why he was in the middle of the road.

“As this was taking place, Mr. Brown refused to cooperate with law enforcement, disregarding all commands to answer questions,” Coleman said. “Mr. Brown was observed with his hands inside of his pants. Several commands were given to Levi Brown to show his hands but he refused.”

Other officers arrived and as they made a move toward Brown, Coleman said, he began to remove his right hand, revealing a chrome handgun.

Officers swamped Brown and during the struggle recovered a loaded chrome .380 semiautomatic pistol. After being handcuffed Brown continued fighting and ran off the bridge toward Park Avenue where he was taken into custody.

Brown, a registered sex offender due to a 2004 Lafourche Parish conviction on a charge of carnal knowledge of a juvenile, was treated at a hospital and then booked at the Terrebonne jail for criminal trespassing, aggravated assault with a firearm on a police officer, resisting an officer by flight and simple escape.