By Michelle Hunter
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
JEFFERSON, La. — A suspected drug dealer who had been carjacked at gunpoint by a customer found a rather unique way to save himself: He rammed his hijacked sport utility vehicle into the front end of a police cruiser, authorities said.
Cheery Joseph, 27, of Metairie, managed to avoid any bodily harm at the hands of his would-be buyer. But he was booked Tuesday with possession of 28 to 199 grams of cocaine after authorities found the drugs in his SUV, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office arrest report.
Joseph’s ordeal and “rescue” started Monday just after 10 p.m. when he drove to a motel parking lot on Veterans Memorial Boulevard near Interstate 10. There, he met a customer for a marijuana purchase, an incident report said. The unidentified buyer took the drugs but said he would hand over the cash only inside Joseph’s gray GMC Yukon, the report said.
Once inside the SUV, the buyer turned carjacker, pulling a pistol on Joseph and ordering him to drive onto Veterans, the report said. A black Pontiac Grand Prix driven by an unidentified man who had also been waiting at the motel followed them.
The carjacker told Joseph to pull into the parking lot of a restaurant in the 4800 block of Veterans, where two men from the Grand Prix got into the SUV, the report said. Both pointed their guns at Joseph, according to the report.
The first carjacker had told Joseph not to do anything stupid, the report said.
But Joseph told police he saw a chance to save himself as he approached the Clearview Parkway intersection, just a little more than a mile from where the journey started. He spotted a New Orleans Police Department cruiser at the traffic light in Clearview’s northbound lane.
Joseph rammed his SUV into the unit’s front end, the report said. All four men in the vehicle jumped out and fled, including Joseph. However, Joseph stopped and was apprehended by the New Orleans police officer.
Jefferson Parish deputies found a handgun on the ground outside the vehicle and more than 21 grams of cocaine in the SUV’s floorboard and driver’s side door, the arrest report said. A search of Joseph’s residence turned up another 17.5 grams of cocaine and drug paraphernalia, the report said.
Joseph was being held Wednesday at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
Copyright 2008 The New Orleans Times-Picayune