FERRIDAY — A fresh coat of paint wasn’t enough of a disguise Tuesday for a Ferriday man to elude Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies.

Kofi Lewis, 32, of 300 8th St., Ferriday, was arrested Tuesday and charged with resisting an officer, flight from an officer, aggravated flight from an officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana and battery on a police officer.

Capt. Payne Scott said deputies approached Lewis in the parking lot of Billups store on E.E. Wallace Boulevard while looking for another individual for whom deputies had an arrest warrant.

“They were looking for another individual at the store at the time but noticed (Lewis) throw something out of his window, so they approached the car for a littering violation,” Scott said. “As they approached the vehicle, the deputies noticed him rolling what appeared to be a suspected marijuana joint.”

Scott said Lewis refused to get out of his vehicle, so the deputies reached in his car, took the car out of gear and attempted to put handcuffs on the suspect.

“(Lewis) pushed on the accelerator to rev his car to the maximum rpms to try and get away,” Scott said. “The deputy pulled away from the car for safety reasons and the suspect put the car in drive and left the parking lot at a high rate of speed.”

Scott said Lewis almost ran over the deputy as he pulled away from the parking lot and nearly caused a traffic accident with his erratic driving.

The deputies were unable to catch Lewis and returned to the station to put out an alert for his vehicle.

Hours later, Scott said Concordia Parish Narcotics Task Force agents found Lewis in Ferriday driving the same vehicle, but with a slightly different color paint job.

“We went back and looked at the video from the deputy’s car to get a better description of the vehicle,” Scott said. “Apparently, (Lewis) had tried to paint the fender of his car to throw us off.”

The disguise didn’t work, and Lewis was held without bond.