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Officers responding to reports of gunfire shortly after 3:30
p.m. on an avenue in the city's St. Roch neighborhood found
eight victims with gunshot wounds, according to a news release
from the New Orleans Police Department. All eight were taken to
hospitals in unknown condition. Police later said a ninth
wounded person arrived at a hospital via a private car.
About 45 minutes later, police received another report of
gunfire as revelers were crossing the Almonaster Avenue Bridge,
just over half a mile (.8 km) to the north. One person died at
the scene and another died at a hospital, police said. A third
victim was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and is in
stable condition, police said.
No arrests were announced and no suspect information was
released. The St. Roch neighborhood is outside the city's French
Quarter that is popular with tourists, located several blocks
northeast of the quarter.
The Almonaster Bridge was closed in both directions during the
investigation.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said detectives didn't
immediately know if the incidents were related.
“They were ... different kinds of approaches,” she said of the
shootings, which occurred in the area where a “second line,” a
celebration following a parade, was taking place.
Thousands had gathered for the annual outing of the Nine Times
Social Aid & Pleasure Club in the 9th Ward, organizer Oscar
Brown told NOLA.com.
“It is a wonderful event, and we want to keep it a wonderful
event,” Kirkpatrick said.
It was the second major shooting in the South since gunfire
marred a homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama on
Nov. 10, leaving one person dead and injuring 16 others, a dozen
of them by gunfire, authorities said.
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