Bossier Parish pastor arrested for possession of meth

A former Bossier Parish pastor has been arrested after admitting to police he had meth at his Bossier City home.

Andy C. Harris, 56, of 2406 Benton Road in Bossier City, was charged with possession of a Schedule II controlled dangerous substance (methamphetamine) and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Harris was the senior pastor at The Church of the Cross, an Assemblies of God congregation perhaps best known for the 199-foot exterior cross it erected in 2009 on its property along U.S. 80 in Haughton.

Church officials confirmed Friday that Harris had resigned, but they wouldn't comment further. References to Harris on the church's site and some on social media have been deleted.

Harris' lives in a 3,519-square-foot home on an acreage, according to parish property records. Detectives found approximately 3.4 grams of suspected meth for personal use, along with a smoking device and snorting straw at the home, the sheriff's office said.

Harris told deputy sheriffs about the meth during an in-office interview for an unrelated investigation. Harris was not a suspect in that investigation, which had been ongoing for a few days, said Bill Davis, the department's public information officer. Davis declined to say what the department had been investigating.

Harris allowed authorities to search his residence to retrieve the drugs.

Harris was arrested Wednesday evening and booked into the Bossier Maximum Security Facility with a bail of $5,000.

Harris' childhood church was the Broadmoor Assembly of God in Shreveport, according to a biography that was on the Church of Cross website but was later deleted. His parents were a prominent Bossier City builder and teacher, respectively, and he graduated from Bossier High School.

He completed a ministerial internship at his home church, the Broadmoor Assembly of God, and became an ordained minister in 1985. He began his ministry at the Church of the Cross in 1996. He and his wife have two children and one grandchild.

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