Local Teenager Busted Just Mere Minutes Before Holding Up A Bank

Detectives believe they averted a potential robbery when they captured a local man armed with a handgun and robbery note lurking in the parking lot of a west Shreveport bank in a stolen car.At approximately 10:00 a.m. on August 1, 2011, Shreveport Police Tactical Robbery Unit Detectives Jack Miller and John Jackson were checking area banks when they observed a suspicious vehicle on the parking lot of the Capital One Bank in the 6100 block of Greenwood Road.

The investigators immediately recognized the SUV, a 2005 Mercury Mountaineer, as one that had been stolen in an alleged carjacking earlier in the morning at a convenience store in the 5100 block of Monkhouse Drive. Miller and Jackson immediately confronted the driver of the Mercury, later identified as 18 year old Leighton Mash, and took him into custody without incident. Mash was wearing a wig, large sunglasses, and earrings in an apparent attempt to impersonate a female.  

Upon further investigation, robbery detectives discovered a purse in the stolen car that contained nothing but a loaded .380 handgun and a note that read, in large letters, “No tricks just give me the money”. Mash, of the 2800 block of Milton Street in Shreveport, was subsequently booked into the Shreveport City Jail on one count of attempted armed robbery and one count of illegal possession of stolen things. Detectives are following up on this case in an attempt to determine what other crimes, if any, he may be responsible for.