“I don’t know this girl, didn’t even know of her. I was just trying to be a decent human by helping a female who was alone at night.”
Selena Sharp, 22, of Bush, La. said she was out with a friend last Saturday night, Feb. 4th.
“I had gone out with a friend. We were going drinking and I got really, really drunk,” said Sharp.
She said her friend’s boyfriend drove out and picked her up her friend from downtown Hammond. Since the bars close at 2am, Sharp decided she would wait around in the parking lot hoping she would sober up to drive home. When she realized that was not happening, she called her boyfriend to come get her from Hammond. That’s nearly an hour’s drive from Bush, Louisiana.
While waiting in the parking lot on Cate St., Sharp said she thought it was a woman needing help. That woman has been identified as Paige Bankston, 20, of Ponchatoula and a Southeastern University student.
“I see this woman walking up and down the street asking for help and I went up to her and asked, ‘What was going on and if she was alright?’ I don’t remember what she said. I told her she could come sit in the car while she figured out what she was going to do.
Originally, she sat in the back seat but then she kept trying to get in the driver seat because I had the car on with the AC on. That made me very uncomfortable so I told her she had to get out of the car and she refused,” said Sharp.
Sharp said she tried to get Bankston out of her car like a toddler. “I wasn’t rough about it. I gently tried to take her out of the car like a toddler who won’t get out of the car.”
“Then she starts screaming at me and punched me in my face and I don’t really remember anything after that. I genuinely didn’t know I was even being stabbed until I saw the blood. I was stabbed right above my collar bone, almost into my neck and that was a pretty big, decent stab wound. I have a smaller one on my right breast and my index finger. Across the palm of my hand has slices from me trying to grab the knife,” said Sharp.
Initially, Hammond Police said the two women may have known each other, and they did not know what led up to their argument. However, Sharp said she does not know Bankston.
“I don’t know this girl, didn’t even know of her. I was just trying to be a decent human by helping a female who was alone at night,” said Sharp. “Physically I’m okay but mentally I struggle and have panic attacks. I cannot even look at myself in the mirror right now because I start crying.”
Bankston was arrested on Feb. 5th just after 3 a.m. and charged with aggravated battery.
Aggravated battery is a disgrace!! Shame on the Hammond police department, who obviously never bothers to do enough to keep violent crime under control. There is video proof of her assaulting a girl with a deadly weapon. What about attempted murder? I suppose that would distract them from their coffee and donuts too much longer..
Aggravated battery is a disgrace. There is proof she assaulted someone with a deadly weapon likely unprovoked. What about attempted murder? The Hammond police department can never bother to pause the coffee and donuts long enough to actually try to help anyone. That is why violent crime is out of control. They could at least be looking into it, or reassuring the public.