By LEONARD GRAY – Managing Editor

HAHNVILLE – A Luling man faces attempted first-degree murder charges following an April 23 incident on Paul Fredrick Street, the second such arrest in less than a year.

Capt. Patrick Yoes reported that Anthony J. Kenner Jr., 21, of 1017 1/2 Gassen St., saw the alleged 28-year-old Boutte male victim walking in the 1200 block of the street at 10:46 p.m., pulled out a handgun and began shooting.

The Boutte man was struck five times in the abdomen, survived the shooting and was taken to nearby St. Charles Parish Hospital on Paul Maillard Road for emergency treatment.

When deputies arrived, the Boutte man was lying face up on the street where he had collapsed.

Though the shooting took place on April 23, the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office withheld releasing a news report on the incident to the media. Detectives were hoping to make the arrest and did not want to alert him and possibly flee the area, as he had already been identified by witnesses.

The strategy appeared to have worked, Yoes continued, as Kenner was apprehended on May 4 at 5:59 p.m. at his residence. Bond was set at $1,000,0750 by 29th Judicial District Judge Robert Chaisson.

Kenner had been arrested in June 2003 and booked on the same charge.

In that June 24 incident, a 21-year-old Hahnville man was fired upon in a residential neighborhood by two men in another vehicle.

Although the alleged victim was not struck, he managed to back away from the Jeep Cherokee from which occupants had fired at him.

Yoes soon reported the arrest soon after the shooting incident of Kenner and of Darnell A. Ingram, 19, of 827 Milling Ave. in Luling.

The alleged victim had been in his vehicle, approaching the corner of Sycamore and Smith streets in Hahnville at 4:11 p.m. that day. Two occupants from a Jeep Cherokee two vehicles ahead then jumped out and fired at least three rounds.

The Hahnville man backed his own vehicle to avoid fire, and the two shooters left the scene. The man then called the sheriff’s office, and deputies on the road were alerted.

At 4:58 p.m., a Jeep Cherokee was pulled over in the 13300 block of U.S. Highway 90 in Boutte, and two arrests were made, without resistance, Yoes said. Ingram and Kenner were each charged with attempted first-degree murder.

Yoes added that shell casings were recovered at the scene of the alleged shooting, but no weapon was recovered from the arrestees.

Yoes said no motivation was provided for the alleged incident, but commented, “It appears to be an ongoing dispute.”

Kenner, driving at the time the pair were pulled over, was also cited for speeding and having no driver’s license in his possession.The bond for each was set at $300,000 by Judge Chaisson.