New Orleans Police and the U.S. Marshals Violent Offender Squad arrested escaped murder suspect Leon Ruffin, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday afternoon.
Sheriff Joe Lopinto says Ruffin was taken into custody around 2:30 p.m. at a hotel at Bullard and I-10 in New Orleans East.
He said more arrests are likely.
"Those arrests will be forthcoming," said the sheriff. "Certainly he had some types of assistance during the last two days."
Sheriff Lopinto says Leon Ruffin faked an injury while in the Jefferson Parish jail Sunday, and then apparently had another medical issue.
"He supposedly had a seizure," the sheriff said.
A deputy took Ruffin to Ochsner Hospital on the Westbank Sunday evening.
After he was treated, Lopinto says the deputy was taking him back to jail.
The sheriff says convict created some sort of disturbance in the police SUV, so the deputy got out and opened the door.
"He pepper sprayed her," Lopinto told reporters. "We do not know where he got the pepper spray from."
He says Ruffin then stole the police SUV, which was recovered hours later near a strip mall on Gen. DeGaulle Drive in Algiers.
Court records show Ruffin was arrested in July after his friend Gannon Johnson was found dead in Avondale.
"The perpetrator... produced a firearm for an unknown reason, and then shot Mr. Johnson multiple times in his body. He approached and shot him two more times in his head," according to prosecutors.
The Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office says Ruffin confessed to killing Johnson, after Johnson helped Ruffin jump-start his car.
