Staff report

A Jefferson County grand jury has indicted Walter Stevens Jones, 20, of Port Arthur for murder in connection with the March 16 shooting death of Joseph Boudreaux, 25, at Avery Trace Apartments at 4260 Highway 365.

A probable cause affidavit said the shooting death — the seventh in Port Arthur in 2018 — occurred around 12:30 p.m. Three witnesses said they saw the shooting.

Officers said they found Boudreaux on the ground in the far east parking lot of the apartment complex and he appeared to have been shot multiple times.

Jones was arrested three days later and bond was set at $1 million.

Port Arthur had five homicides in all of 2017.

The spate of violence this year was behind Port Arthur Police Chief Patrick Melvin’s decision to form a task force that includes city police and federal partners, such as the FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Drug Enforcement Agency and Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It also encouraged a citizen’s march against violence last Saturday in Port Arthur.

Avery Trace has hired off-duty police officers — two officers on weekdays, four at night; four officers all day and night during the weekends — to address violence that has continued for six months at the apartments.