Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
UNION PARISH, La. (KTVE/KARD) — On Saturday, October 15, 2022, a Union Parish Sheriff’s deputy initiated a traffic stop on a 1999 Mercury Marquis on Louisiana Highway 33 and Rosewood Drive in Farmerville, La. As the vehicle pulled over into the premises of a local business, the driver exited the vehicle while it was still moving, causing the vehicle to strike the business.
According to authorities, the driver then allegedly fled the scene, running behind the building. As the deputy approached the vehicle, he observed 35-year-old Jarvell Williams of Sparksville, La. in the passenger’s side of the vehicle.
The deputy went on to secure Williams and heard a gunshot. The gunshot came from the direction the driver fled to.
Shortly after the gunshot, more deputies arrived at the scene. Once Williams was taken into custody, the driver of the vehicle, 35-year-old Donnie Heard of Ruston, La. walked from behind another business in the area and appeared to have an injury to his face, which was determined to be a gunshot wound.
Heard was transported to a local hospital and then airlifted to a Shreveport hospital. The Northeast Louisiana Sheriff’s Task Force was contacted to conduct an investigation due to Heard receiving a gunshot wound. The initial investigation determined that no deputies of the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office fired their weapons.
Investigators then executed a search warrant on the 1999 Mercury Marquis and located crack cocaine and methamphetamine. Williams was booked into the Union Parish Detention Center and charged with two counts of Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance, Fugitive from Justice, and Introduction of Contraband into a Penal Institution.
According to officials, charges are pending against Heard upon his release from the hospital. The investigation by the Northeast Louisiana Sheriff’s Task Force is ongoing to determine how Heard suffered a gunshot wound.