By BEN LUNDIN

Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – The St. John’s Sheriff’s Office awarded a LaPlace woman a certificate of appreciation and commended her for her bravery and assistance in the capture of a man who allegedly committed an armed robbery on Jan. 16.

Shea Lewis, an active member of the Louisiana Army Reserve and cashier at the RaceTrac gas station on Airline Highway in LaPlace, was approached by Eric Lewis at 4:30 a.m., who concealed his hand under his shirt acting as if he had a weapon, and told her, &#8220I have a gun, give me the money,” according to police.

She complied with his request and calmly waited for him to exit the station. She followed behind him with a cell phone and took several pictures of him and his vehicle, then immediately called police and gave officers a complete description of him and detailed where he was heading. While she explained the incident with the 911 call center, a deputy parked at Highway 51 and Woodland Dr. saw Eric Lewis’ vehicle and attempted to pull him over, but he accelerated and started a high speed chase before veering off the road and crashing. Police arrested him at the scene.

Sheriff Wayne Jones suggested that Shea Lewis’ reservist training played an important role in her ability to remain calm and awarded her a certificate of appreciation at the Percy Hebert building on Jan. 19.

&#8220When a person is traumatized like this, many times they can’t even speak. They just press a button and deputies have to respond to find out what happened. By that time the person could be in New Orleans,” Jones said. &#8220We wanted to acknowledge Shea on how she kept her composure and the job that she did. Her professional demeanor in talking to the 911 center is kind of a rarity in the whole scope of things.”

&#8220Let me know if you want a change of work and maybe come in and do police work because you did a good job,” Jones jokingly told Lewis.