A 17-year-old Harahan teen wanted by New Orleans police in connection with a carjacking case was captured in LaPlace after leading sheriff's deputies on a high-speed chase that ended with his car smashing through a fence, into the side of a brick house and into a gas meter. Keith Magraff Jr. was arrested on Sept. 23 after deputies found him driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen out of New Orleans two days earlier.
According to the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office, deputies spotted Magraff behind the wheel of the stolen vehicle at 2:46 p.m. in the 1800 block of Cinclair Loop in LaPlace's New Era subdivision. Authorities say he was a fugitive from the New Orleans Police Department wanted in connection with a separate carjacking, and that he sped off the moment he noticed a marked sheriff's unit nearby.
Magraff refused to stop even after a deputy activated emergency lights and sirens, the sheriff's office said. He tore north on Cinclair Loop at a high rate of speed, struck a curb and blew through five stop signs on North Sugar Ridge as deputies pursued him, according to the account posted by the sheriff's office.
Car Crashes Through Fence Into Home
The chase ended abruptly when Magraff drove through a west-facing fence and struck the south side of a brick house along with a gas meter, per the sheriff's office. The impact left the vehicle immobile. Magraff then got out and tried to run on foot, but deputies caught and detained him, the agency said.
The St. John Parish Fire Department responded to the crash scene and secured the damaged gas meter until officials from Atmos Gas arrived to address it, according to the sheriff's office. It is not known from available reporting whether anyone inside the home was hurt.
Charges and Bond
The sheriff's office said Magraff was booked on an NOPD fugitive warrant along with a string of local charges: aggravated obstruction of a highway of commerce, misdemeanor and felony illegal possession of stolen things, reckless operation of a vehicle, flight from an officer by vehicle, resisting an officer by flight, Hit and Run Driving, and five stop-sign counts, according to the agency's arrest report. Magraff is being held in the St. John Parish jail under a $20,450 bond set by 40th Judicial District Court Judge Vercell Fiffie, the sheriff's office said. No bond was listed for the fugitive warrant itself.
Louisiana's resisting-an-officer statute, as published by the Louisiana Legislature, defines obstruction to include flight by someone sought to be arrested before an officer can restrain them, after they've been told they are under arrest — the kind of statutory language that underpins the flight-related charges deputies filed against Magraff.
Separate New Orleans Carjacking Report
Separate reporting from WDSU described an armed carjacking in the 5100 block of St. Claude Avenue around 2:43 a.m. on a Sunday, in which NOPD said the suspect was armed with a silver-and-black semi-automatic pistol and the victim handed over her keys after he demanded them. The available evidence does not independently confirm that this is the same carjacking case tied to Magraff's NOPD fugitive warrant.
WWLTV reported that the arrest followed a chase across LaPlace streets that ended in a residential neighborhood. No court disposition, plea or updated custody status for Magraff is currently available.
