New Orleans police on Thursday arrested a popular Algiers pastor and former NOPD officer, nearly 24 hours after he fired shots at two men he said were stealing copper tubing from air conditioners outside his church.
W.L.T. Littleton, the 62-year-old pastor of Greater Morning Star Baptist Church of Algiers and a radio personality, surrendered for arrest shortly before 5 p.m., according to police and court records. He was booked with one count of aggravated battery in connection with the shooting of Rodney Mitchell, 50.
NOPD Interim Superintendent Michael Harrison said Littleton told investigators he caught two men – identified as Mitchell and 34-year-old Joseph Cross – dismantling and stripping unsecured air conditioner units between Littleton’s church and his adjacent snowball stand in the 1200 block of Vallette Street around 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Littleton pointed a gun and ordered the men to stop, according to Harrison. When they defied him and began to flee, first on foot and then in a pickup truck, witnesses said Littleton fired at least eight shots. Littleton then jumped into his white SUV and chased the men’s vehicle. Police said one of the shots Littleton fired struck Mitchell in the head. The truck’s back window was shattered, police said, though it was unclear whether Littleton fired additional shots once the vehicle chase began.
Harrison said Littleton stopped chasing the truck and flagged down an NOPD patrol car at the corner of Newton and Behrman streets to report the copper theft. Meanwhile, an off-duty NOPD officer came upon the pickup truck a few blocks away, outside a tire shop near Diana Street and L.B. Landry Avenue.
Mitchell was rushed to Interim LSU Hospital Wednesday in critical condition, but had been upgraded to serious condition by late Thursday afternoon. Cross was unhurt, and was arrested and booked with theft, simple criminal damage and a parole violation.
Littleton surrendered his gun to police officers on Wednesday, and no other weapons were recovered, NOPD said.
The shooting marked the second time in a week that an Algiers resident fired upon someone they accused of criminal conduct. On Aug. 20, 25-year-old Keith Jay Jones was shot and killed by a homeowner who said the masked Jones forced his family into their house at gunpoint in an attempted home invasion in the 1800 block of West Homestead Drive. Detectives ruled that shooting a case of justifiable homicide.
Harrison said the cases were not indicative of a trend toward vigilante justice or unreasonable fear of crime in Algiers.
“Those are case-by-case incidents,” Harrison said. “I can’t say what citizens should and shouldn’t do. We look at each individual case on its own merits. This individual case has its own facts and circumstances.”
Cross was on parole from a 2011 simple burglary conviction in Jefferson Parish, for which he had received a six-year sentence. His record also includes convictions for cocaine distribution in 2007 and theft in 2009 following Jefferson Parish arrests. Court records show this was his first adult arrest in Orleans Parish.
Mitchell pled guilty to a charge of cocaine possession in 2010, for which he received a three-year suspended sentence and three years of active probation. Court records indicate a warrant for his arrest has been active since September 2013 for failing to pay required fees and fines levied by the court.
Littleton had no prior criminal record. He worked as an NOPD officer from 1974-83 before resigning for unspecified health reasons, according to the department and the city Civil Service Commission. He has worked as a pastor for more than 20 years with a reputation for generosity and forgiveness, according to family members and church neighbors.
“He’s a nice man,” said Ricky Smith, who lives a few doors down from Littleton’s church. “He tries to give people around here work so that don’t have to be stealing. But I guess the more you help people, the more they try to do bad by you.”
Littleton had remained secluded inside his Algiers home earlier Thursday, skipping his weekday morning radio show on WBOK 1230-AM and declining to meet with reporters at his front door. His son Taschi Littleton said his father was resting after the stress of Wednesday’s incident.
“My father is a man of God, and he’s prayed up,” he said. “And everything’s in God’s hands.”
Less than five hours later, the senior Littleton was booked into the Orleans Parish Prison central lockup.
Neighbors of the church said they had been grateful to see Littleton return late Wednesday night, free from police custody after being interviewed for several hours at NOPD headquarters.
“They took the pastor in for questioning, but last night he came back to see if everything was all right with the church. He came back around 9 or 10 o’clock,” said Micquell Dillon. “It was really sad. He’s really a nice man. I hope everything is OK with him.”
Dillon, who was on her front porch with her young son and other family members when the shooting erupted Wednesday, said she was stunned by what she saw.
“I heard the shots, at least eight or 10 of them,” she said. “I leaned over and saw the pastor running to get in his truck to chase after them. I got all the kids inside.”
According to Cross’ arrest report, Littleton told investigators he looked out a church office window to see the suspect tampering with the air conditioner.
“They must’ve didn’t think he was going to come out as fast as he did,” Dillon said of the men.
The arrest report makes no mention of Mitchell or the gunfire. Cross’ bond was set Thursday afternoon at $10,000. Littleton’s bond was expected to be set Thursday night.
Taschi Littleton praised his father’s character before the arrest.
“He’s a great father and a great role model to the community,” he said. “He’s gone out of his way, for years, to give not only to members of his church but anyone who’s come in need from other congregations. Anyone who’s come to him and asked for help, he’s always been there for them.”
One man, who declined to give his name, waited Thursday at a bus stop outside the church. He said he often spoke with the pastor on his way to and from work.
“I’m glad he caught them,” he said of the accused copper thieves. “You ain’t got no business stealing from a church anyhow. That’s not cool at all.”
