NUDE DRIVER ACCUSED OF TRYING TO HIT LOUISIANA TROOPERS

A nude driver hit a trooper at a traffic stop in East Baton Rouge Parish and tried to run over two more in Ascension Parish before they ended the early morning chase by shooting out a tire. Bryan Batulis Jr., 25, of Jennings, remained in the Ascension Parish jail on Tuesday.

He was booked Monday with three counts of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer, two each of reckless driving and aggravated flight from an officer, and one each of resisting arrest and driving while impaired by a drug.

Troopers investigating a fatal wreck a few days earlier were diverting southbound traffic from Airline Highway near the state fair grounds about 2:30 a.m. Monday, but Batulis kept going. When a trooper walked up to the Ford F-350 pickup truck, the driver sped up and hit the trooper in the leg, Smith said.

The other troopers tried to stop him outside a restaurant in Prairieville, about 3 1/2 miles from the fairgrounds, but he again stepped on the gas and tried to hit them. The troopers shot out the right front tire and the truck ran into a ditch near Gonzales, another 6 miles south.