By Monique Roth
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – A 16-year-old juvenile has been arrested in the murder of Calvin Edmond, the 17-year-old teenager who was shot in the head in Cambridge subdivision earlier this week.

On Thursday, April 24 at 7:50 p.m., St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested a 16-year-old juvenile who lives on Williamsburg Drive in LaPlace on a judicial court ordered arrest warrant.

The juvenile was booked with second-degree murder, aggravated criminal damage to property and three counts of aggravated assault with a firearm. He remains in custody in lieu of a $285,000 bond.

On Tuesday, April 22, at 8:39 p.m., St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the intersection of Yorktowne Drive and Fairway Drive in LaPlace for the report of a male subject who was shot.

When deputies arrived, they found Edmond unresponsive on the ground and reported he had sustained a gunshot wound to the back of the head. He was immediately transported to River Parishes Hospital for treatment, and was later transferred to University Hospital in New Orleans.

Area residents told investigators that after they heard several gun shots they exited their homes to find the victim lying on the ground in front of a residence. One neighbor reported that the glass door of her residence was shattered by a bullet, and the exterior of her house had several bullet holes.

No other injuries were reported.

Edmond, of Cinclair Loop in LaPlace, died on Wednesday, April 23.

The homicide is the second homicide in St. John the Baptist Parish this year.

The first homicide was that of Steve Finckbeiner, the owner of LaPlace Feed and Supply, who was the victim of a robbery-turned-homicide when two men entered his store and opened fire on he and his wife before fleeing with the store’s cash register. Steve’s wife, Connie Finckbeiner, survived the attack. Dracier Dewey, 22, and Charles McQuarter III, 22, both of Homewood Place in Reserve, were both arrested for their participation in the crime.

The homicides of Reserve married couple Kenneth and LaKeitha Joseph are not counted in the St. John Parish homicide count, as the still-ongoing investigation indicates they did not die in the parish.

At this time last year, the homicide count for St. John the Baptist Parish was at 10.