Things are back up and running at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center after an incident involving what is believed to be Fentanyl.
Thursday afternoon Reeshawn Arnold, 32, was being booked into LPCC when he allegedly threw suspected Fentanyl at several law enforcement officers.
Six deputies were transported to medical facilities to be checked out; they all were released and are doing okay as of Friday morning, a spokesperson said.
The intake area of the jail was shut down for cleaning and no bookings were being accepted late Thursday, but by midnight operations had resumed, the spokesperson said.
Arnold was booked with six counts attempted first-degree murder, criminal negligence (seven counts), possession of schedule II controlled dangerous substances, introduction of contraband into a penal institution, resisting an officer and obstruction of justice in connection with the incident, jail records show.
Arnold was being booked by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office on several active warrants, records at the jail show.
Arnold, 32, of New Orleans, has a record including drug and weapons convictions. He also was convicted in a high-profile case that happened in New Orleans in 2013. He and another man were accused of beating a French Quarter musician into a coma. He pleaded guilty to a battery charge and was sentenced to five years in prison in 2014; he was released on good time in 2018. His co-defendant was convicted of being an habitual offender and given a life sentence.
Orleans Parish court records show Arnold has arrests for other crimes since he was released from that sentence, mostly weapons and drug charges. Most recently he was sentenced to several years in prison in 2024 for convictions on weapons and drug charges. Records show authorities in Texas seized more than $23,000 in cash from him in 2022, alleging it was proceeds from his "marihuana" business.
Here in Lafayette, he's accused of exposing six sheriff's deputies to fentanyl during the booking process by throwing a substance on them.
As of late Thursday, booking had been suspended at the jail while clean-up crews came to make sure the area was safe.
Here's some video from the scene, around 3:45 p.m. on Thursday:
UPDATE: LPSO says the offender concealed the illegal narcotics in a manner which would go undetected during a pat down search. Per agency and Louisiana POST Policy, officers and deputies are required to do a pat down search prior to an offender's entry into a correctional facility. A second pat down search is also mandated, as well as a strip search and an X-ray detection for contraband.
