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METAIRIE, La. (AP) — A 20-year-old man was arrested Friday in the drug-related slaying of four people at a suburban New Orleans apartment complex, authorities said.
Armande Stephen Tart of Metairie was arrested following an investigation that involved an estimated 50 detectives, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said at an afternoon news conference. The sheriff's office said Tart surrendered after authorities surrounded a home in Kenner.
The shootings happened early Wednesday in Metairie, just west of New Orleans. Deputies responding to a call from a woman who said she had been shot found three people with fatal gunshot wounds: apartment residents Rosemary Charles, 61, and John Edward Henry, 56, along with Kyle Turner, 40, believed to be visiting from LaPlace.
Deputies later spotted an open door in another apartment, where they found the body of its tenant, Harold Frisard, 56, who had been stabbed multiple times in the head.
Tart also faces an attempted first-degree murder charge in the shooting and wounding of the woman who called authorities. Her identity has not been released.
"The motive was stealing drugs," Normand said. He said there were "significant amounts of cocaine" in one apartment. He said those killed had previous drug arrests.
Normand said authorities believe Tart acted alone.
He said detectives worked around the clock, hoping to solve the case and ease anxieties among neighbors in the area where the killings occurred.
Normand said the wounded victim cooperated with investigators. He credited bits and pieces of information from neighbors with helping lead to an arrest. He also said there was surveillance video and DNA evidence from a cellphone stolen from one of the victims and recovered later, far from the scene.
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