A 52-year-old Natchitoches man is in custody after police say he boarded a City of Alexandria transit van, threatened the driver and two passengers aboard, and forced the vehicle on a nearly 100-mile trip north to Monroe before officers intercepted it. The driver and both riders are safe and uninjured, according to authorities.
Danny L. Slaughter boarded the Alexandria Transit System, or ATRANS, van reportedly after being turned away from a local hospital earlier that day, according to Rapides Parish Journal. Slaughter reportedly has a documented history of mental health issues and a lengthy criminal record, per the same report. At the time he boarded, the van was occupied by one city employee serving as driver and two passengers.
A Forced Drive to Monroe
Slaughter reportedly threatened the van's occupants and forced the driver to take the vehicle to Monroe against the group's collective will, the outlet reports. The trip from Alexandria to Monroe spans roughly 95 miles and typically takes between 1.5 and 2 hours to drive, according to background detail compiled from Wikipedia. The trip required coordination between law enforcement agencies far from where it began.
ATRANS notified the Alexandria Police Department once the diversion became known, and the department worked with other agencies to locate the van as it moved north, the Rapides Parish Journal reported. The city employee driver and one passenger managed to exit the van safely once it reached Monroe. Monroe Police Department officers located and stopped the van a short distance later, with a second passenger still inside at the time, and officers detained Slaughter on the scene.
Unverified Reports of a Firearm
Local outlet UrbanCast reported that individuals close to the situation claimed Slaughter was armed with a firearm when he boarded the van, though the Alexandria Police Department's official release did not mention a weapon, and initial statements from police omitted specific charge descriptions while the joint investigation with Monroe police continued, according to UrbanCast. Whether a weapon was actually involved remains unconfirmed by police.
All three victims — the city employee driver and the two passengers — are described as safe and uninjured and were being transported back to Alexandria, the Rapides Parish Journal reported. The Alexandria Police Department said it is coordinating with the Monroe Police Department on the ongoing investigation and will release additional information as it becomes available.
A Record of Court Warrants in Natchitoches
Court records compiled by a local outlet show Slaughter has run afoul of the law before in his home parish. In September 2025, a Danny Slaughter of Natchitoches appeared in the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff's Office Drug Enforcement Unit's list of arrests, with three counts of Failure to Appear in court, according to the Natchitoches Parish Journal. Years earlier, in December 2017, the Natchitoches City Marshal's Office placed a Danny Slaughter of Pavie Street on an official bench warrant list for outstanding court fines ordered by the Natchitoches City Court, the paper separately reported.
Formal charges in the Monroe diversion had not been detailed in initial statements, leaving open what counts prosecutors in Rapides Parish may ultimately pursue. Louisiana law defines second-degree kidnapping as forcibly seizing and carrying a victim from one place to another, or using a victim as a hostage, a felony carrying 5 to 40 years at hard labor with at least two years served without benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence, according to the Louisiana State Legislature. Separately, state carjacking statutes define the offense as the intentional taking of a motor vehicle from another person by force or intimidation.
Mental Health Access and Transit Safety Questions
The reported hospital turn-away ahead of the incident has drawn attention to the capacity of Central Louisiana's emergency medical network to handle acute psychiatric cases. CHRISTUS St. Frances Cabrini Hospital is a short-term acute-care hospital, per Turquoise Health.
The incident has also raised questions about communication between municipal transit operators and police once a vehicle is diverted across parish lines, as UrbanCast's reporting noted. ATRANS, operated by the City of Alexandria, runs transit routes and offers ADA van service, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
How to Report Information
The Alexandria Police Department's Detective Division can be reached at 318-441-6416, and department dispatch can be reached at 318-441-6559. Detectives can also be emailed at [email protected]. Crime Stoppers of CENLA is offering cash rewards for tips at 318-443-7867, and tipsters can also use the Crime Stoppers P3 Tipster app to submit information and obtain a claim number for a cash reward.
