MAN ACCUSED OF HATE CRIMES AFTER ARMED THREATS IN TALLULAH FOLLOWING HIT-AND-RUN CRASH
By TIMOTHY HOLDINESS - Publisher/EditorFri,08/22/25-4:24PM, 23,984 Reads
A Tallulah man was arrested Thursday after police said he threatened residents with an assault rifle following a hit-and-run.
Tallulah Police Chief Buster McCoy said officers with the Tallulah Police Deparment and Madison Parish Sheriff's Office deputies responded to 600 LaSalle Street at 4:51 p.m. after reports of a driver who left the scene of a crash.
“The fleeing driver was identified as Robert Ray Fortenberry, 56, of Tallulah,” McCoy said in a statement. “Fortenberry was driving a black SUV during the hit and run incident. He left the scene, exchanged vehicles, and returned to the residence in a silver Ford pickup truck.”
McCoy said Fortenberry exited the truck and began shouting profanities and threats at residents on the property. “At some point, Fortenberry returned to his truck and retrieved an assault rifle,” McCoy said. “He then reentered the property with the assault rifle and continued to threaten bodily harm while pointing the assault rifle at the individuals.”
According to police, Fortenberry fired one shot with the weapon before leaving the scene. He was later apprehended at 1206 LaSalle Street, where officers recovered the rifle.
Fortenberry was charged with eight counts of illegal use of a weapon, eight counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, eight counts of hate crimes and one count of terrorizing. He is being held in the Madison Parish Jail on a $215,000 bond.
Fortenberry is the same person who was injured in an Aug. 13 crash on Levee Road in Delta, when an 18-wheeler hauling corn overturned. He was trapped inside the cab and airlifted to University Medical Center in Jackson, Miss., with broken bones.
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