2 juvenile drive-by suspects arrested. Between them, they're wearing 5 ankle monitors

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NEW ROADS — A pair of juveniles wearing multiple ankle monitors for crimes in other parishes have been accused of a drive-by shooting in New Roads, authorities said.

The names of the juveniles involved in the drive-by were not released due to their ages.

Pointe Coupee Parish Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux said his deputies were contacted this week after the pair showed up in court in Avoyelles Parish. Thibodeaux said one suspect is facing a murder charge in another parish and was wearing two ankle monitors. A second suspect is also facing a murder charge and other charges, and was wearing three monitors on his body from three different parishes.

Sheriff Thibodeaux said his deputies went to Avoyelles Parish, picked up the juveniles and booked them in Pointe Coupee Parish. They didn't stay in jail for long.

"You have juveniles charged with an attempted murder that's already out," Thibodeaux said. "Here they are in my parish charged with guns and violence, and we letting them back on the street. That's alarming. All my people can do is do the paperwork, charge them, but if I have no place to put them, my hands are tied."

Sheriff Thibodeaux said his office contacted eight different facilities to take the juveniles into custody.

"Nobody would take these juveniles," Thibodeaux said. "There is no place for them."

Last summer, WBRZ detailed complaints from other officials on the west side of the Mississippi River who voiced concerns after 14 of Louisiana's most troubled kids were kicked out of a juvenile diversion facility in Dothan, Ala.

"We were basically told that to come get them and never are we to send another juvenile to Alabama," Major Zack Simmers said last year. "They don't want the state's money."

Law enforcement believes the problem is occurring because juveniles have figured out how the game is played.

"Young people telling them they can't do you nothing," Sheriff Brett Stassi said two years ago. "They ain't going to be able to do nothing. It's coming true because we have no place to put them."

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