CRESCENT STAR FUGITIVE TASK FORCE CAPTURES NEW ORLEANS ATTEMPTED MURDER/ARMED ROBBERY SUSPECT IN SLIDELL, LA

On the evening of June 19, 2007, the U.S. Marshals Eastern District of Louisiana (EDLA) Crescent Star Fugitive Task Force (CSFTF), with assistance from the Slidell Police Department, arrested Karim Peters, 23 years old, on Gause Blvd at I-10 in Slidell, Louisiana. Peters was wanted on two warrants out of Orleans Parish. One warrant was for an attempted murder on May 16, 2007, and the other for armed robbery.

The New Orleans Police Department believes that on the morning of May 16, 2007, Peters shot a victim in the back several times in the 5200 block of Revel St. New Orleans. The armed robbery warrant is from a May 08, 2007 incident in the 4700 block of Rosemont Place New Orleans East. Investigators believe that Peters forced his way into a residence during that incident. There was also a 2006 warrant for Peters for felony larceny from the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and a felony larceny warrant out of Georgia.

Peters has been profiled on Crime Stoppers and the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission’s Times Picayune “Wanted by the Law” feature. The New Orleans Police Department is a member agency of CSFTF and thus Peters became a priority fugitive for the task force. Information was developed that he was in the Slidell area and he was arrested without incident.

CSFTF was founded in 1999 by the EDLA U.S. Marshals Service, and it relies on the support of numerous New Orleans metro area law enforcement agencies to track and arrest fugitives across the district. Currently the task force is being supported by additional manpower supplied by the U.S. Attorney General to the U.S. Marshals Service to combat the post Hurricane Katrina crime problem across the New Orleans metro area. The district has dubbed this “Operation Debris Removal.” The task force is currently averaging ten to fifteen arrests per week with the additional support being provided.