I had just laid my head down on the pillow from a late night shift when the phone rang. Like a young boy dreading waking up to go to school, I rolled over and answered the constant calling of the phone. After my greeting of “Hello”, the caller responded with “They’re night hunting on the Cramer Road.”

Sgt. Balkom had received a complaint from the Claiborne Parish Sheriff’s Department of night hunting activity. The hunting was in progress near a residence and the complainant was in the process of chasing them across an open hay field.

I don’t have a telephone booth in my bedroom but by the speed that I had gotten dressed that night, I do believe even Superman would have been impressed. I raced out the door knowing that I was still 20 minutes away from Cramer Road.

I meet with Sgt. Balkom and we were on our way. The Sheriff’s Department informed us that a deputy would be on the scene. We arrived to find a deputy and the two complainants standing out in the hay field. The complainants reported of hearing a shot at the field and then seeing a light moving across the field. The complainants got in their truck and chased the light across the field. They saw a young male that they recognized. The subject ran across the field into a fence and fell over the fence.

Sgt. Balkom and the deputy went to the subject ‘s home. Sgt. Balkom questioned two subjects and gained information of one of the subjects being on parole for a felony. So Probation and Parole was informed of the situation and dispatched to the scene.

I was in the field looking for evidence. A handsaw was found in the field with hair and flesh-type material in the teeth of the saw. Where one of the subjects went through the fence a denim fabric was found on one of the barbs of the fence. The deer was found in the woods but was still much alive. I then went to the residence of the two subjects.

Once at the residence, I informed Sgt. Balkom of what I had found. Sgt. Balkom and Probation and Parole found a rifle in the subject on parole’s closet. On the other subjects leg was a fresh cut. I asked to look at the pants he wore and they were torn. One of the subjects finally told the story.

He told the story of them riding home, seeing the deer, shooting at the deer and dropping his brother off while he drove down the road and waited. They carried 2-way radios to talk back and forth when a truck chased his brother across the field. His brother fell across a fence and dropped the saw in the field. He picked his brother up and they drove home. He told of them hiding a gun and spotlight in the woods at their driveway.

The two subjects were arrested and booked into Claiborne Parish Detention Center and cited for: Hunt from Moving Vehicle, Hunt from Public Road, Discharge Firearm from Public Road, and Hunt Deer Season Closed. One of the subjects was also cited for Felony Possession of a Firearm.  One of the subjects was tied into an on-going case from last year and was cited for that. But that is another story.