BATON ROUGE – Police have arrested 18-year old Janiya Wattley, a woman accused of firing a gun inside of a beauty supply store and proceeding to rob the businesses in early December.
The owner of Jasmine Beauty Supply on Airline Highway says he confronted Wattley for attempting to steal a wig from his store on Dec. 3, but the situation quickly escalated.
Surveillance video shows Wattley rummaging through her purse after he confronted her about the wig, then drawing a handgun. Wattley is seen firing a shot into the ceiling of the store, then pointing the gun at the owner as he fled to the back of the business.
Wattley is then seen grabbing more wigs before turning to an employee at the front register. The robber fled after the owner, who retrieved his own gun from the back, fired a single shot into the ground.
Authorities have been on the hunt for the person responsible for the armed robbery since December, announcing over a month later that BRPD had made an arrest.
A WBRZ crew attended Thursday morning as authorities escorted the suspect from BRPD Headquarters. This is the department’s second “perp walk” in less than a month. Before this, BRPD hadn’t rolled out the “blue carpet” in over two years.