UPDATE: Theft Suspect Armed With BB Gun Identified But Not Located

October 6, 2021 Update: Deputies with the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office located Andrew Barbazon in Natalbany Wednesday (October 6, 2021) afternoon. He was taken into custody and booked into the Tangipahoa Parish Jail as a fugitive. Sheriff Randy Smith thanks the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office for its assistance in locating Barbazon. “I cannot thank Sheriff Daniel Edwards and the men and women of the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office enough for the assistance they have provided to us on this case and the hours they have put in helping us locate this man to get him off the streets,” Sheriff Smith said.

_______________________________________

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives, working with Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives, have identified the individual responsible for the incident this weekend at the Covington Academy Sports and Outdoors as 33 year-old Andrew Barbazon. An arrest warrant has been issued for Barbazon on the charge of First Degree Robbery. 

Shortly after 9:00 am Saturday, October 2, 2021, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Academy Sports and Outdoors in Covington after a female reported a white male armed with a rifle had stolen her truck.

Deputies arrived at the store within minutes and began investigating the incident. After deputies reviewed video footage from the store, it was learned the unknown white male removed an airsoft BB rifle from its packaging and discarded the empty package in the store. The white male then exited the store and was in the parking lot for some time. As the female was loading her packages in the back of her truck, the unknown male walked up and entered her opened driver’s side door, before exiting the parking lot towards Interstate 12. Shortly after 11:00 am, the truck was located on Haynes Road in Tangipahoa Parish. 

If anyone has any information on Barbazon’s whereabouts, please contact the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office at (985) 898-2338.