A man trying to sell a pair of white Jordan 12 sneakers outside LSU's West Campus Apartments late last month says he ended up staring down the barrel of a gun instead of closing a deal. According to an arrest affidavit, the victim was waiting in his car with a passenger around 11 p.m. on Oct. 23 when three people approached the vehicle, and what started as a sneaker sale turned into an armed robbery in an LSU parking lot.
The victim told police he had arranged to sell the shoes to a man identified as Hayes, and that Hayes and two other men walked up to his vehicle, according to The Advocate. One of the suspects pointed a gun at the victim through the driver's-side window and said, “give it up,” per the affidavit. The victim handed over the sneakers and immediately drove away, while Hayes and the other two suspects left together in another car.
Surveillance Footage Leads Police to South Hall
Investigators determined the three suspects had come from South Hall and returned there after the robbery, according to LSU police. The Advocate reported that surveillance footage showed one of the suspects, identified as Wendell Riggins III, using a Tiger Card to access South Hall shortly before the robbery took place. Riggins was an LSU student who lived in the dorm, a detail that helped investigators zero in on a suspect.
Riggins was arrested on Oct. 29 on a count of armed robbery. During questioning, he gave police the name and phone number of the man the victim had identified as Hayes, according to the same arrest affidavit cited by The Advocate. That lead pointed detectives toward their second arrest in the case.
Second Arrest, Third Suspect Still at Large
The man identified in police records as Hayes, 18, was arrested Nov. 2 on a count of principal to armed robbery with a firearm. The Advocate's report on the case spells the suspect's first name “Devine,” while WBRZ's reporting on the arrest spells it “Divine” — a discrepancy that has not been resolved against an original police or court record. At the time The Advocate's report was published, police were still searching for the third suspect involved in the robbery.
The case echoes another armed robbery reported on LSU's campus near Kirby Smith Hall, in which three males approached a victim, brandished a gun and stole an iPhone, according to WBRZ. In that incident, police released photos of three suspects but reported no injuries, and said at the time that no arrests had been made and the investigation was continuing.
A Broader Look at Campus Crime Numbers
The sneaker-sale robbery arrives as LSU's latest annual security report shows shifts across several crime categories, though those figures do not establish a trend specific to armed robberies. The report, detailed by The Reveille, found motor vehicle thefts jumped to 218 in 2025 from 121 in 2024 and 68 in 2023. Liquor law arrests climbed to 139 in 2025, up from 31 in 2024 and 59 in 2023, while on-campus drug law arrests rose to 62 in 2025 from 29 the year before.
Other categories moved in the opposite direction. Burglary reports fell from 53 in 2023 to 19 in 2025, and the report also noted dating violence reports dropped from 30 to 18 and stalking reports fell from 45 to 37 since 2024, per the same campus security report. The sneaker-sale robbery was first reported by WBRZ, which detailed the arrests of both suspects now facing charges. LSU police have not indicated whether the search for the third suspect has turned up any new leads.
