On a quiet Friday morning in Westlake, Louisiana, the body of 62-year-old Lawanna J. Lewis was discovered in a roadside ditch. Deputies responding to a call around 11 a.m. on Oct. 10 found her with multiple gunshot wounds to the head. Her car was missing. What followed was a harrowing chain of events spanning nearly 150 miles and involving high-speed pursuit, tragedy, and arrest.
Investigators believe Lewis—who lived in Lake Charles—was out working as a Lyft driver the night before her body was found. Her shift had begun earlier in the evening, and somewhere along the way, authorities say, the two men she was driving requested the ride, turned on her, shot her, abandoned her body, and fled with her vehicle.
Once deputies realized the car was missing, they issued a Be On the Lookout alert. The missing vehicle was later spotted parked in Houston, Texas. When Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies attempted to make contact with the two occupants, the men bolted. In the chaos that followed, one of them—identified as Ethan Bush, 23, of Boyce—ran into traffic while fleeing and was struck by multiple vehicles. He was later pronounced dead at the scene.
The second suspect, identified as 26-year-old Tristan A. Bush of Lafayette, was tracked by HCSO air support and a K-9 unit, eventually cornered in a residential area and taken into custody. He’s now charged with second-degree murder, and bond has been set at $2.5 million. Extradition back to Louisiana is being arranged.
In the wake of the arrest, more details about Tristan Bush have emerged. Public records show prior run-ins with law enforcement: a 2022 arrest in Kenner for trespassing and resisting an officer, and another in 2023 in Lafayette for resisting an officer with force. Meanwhile, Ethan Bush had no known criminal history.
The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff, Stitch Guillory, called the case “heartbreaking,” lamenting that someone out trying to earn extra money lost her life so senselessly. He also expressed frustration with Lyft for what his office called a lack of cooperation after Lewis went missing, while praising local partners—such as Phillips 66—for their prompt assistance providing video surveillance footage.
As of now, authorities say the investigation is ongoing, and additional charges could be filed. For Lewis’s family, community, and fellow drivers, questions remain: how could this happen, and what shadows lurk in the ride-share world that we rarely see?