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| New Orleans Police investigate shooting at the intersection Frenchman Street at N. Villere on Mother's Day in New Orleans, Sunday May 12, 2013. Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a Mother's Day neighborhood parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 17, police said. |
NEW ORLEANS
(AP) -- Gunmen opened fire on people marching in a neighborhood Mother's
Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 19.
The
shooting - described by the FBI as a flare-up of street violence -
shattered the festive mood surrounding the parade that drew hundreds of
people to the 7th Ward neighborhood of modest row houses not far from
the French Quarter. Cell phone video taken in the aftermath of the
shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and
others bending over to comfort them.
At least
three of the victims were seriously wounded. Of the rest, many were
grazed and authorities said that overall most wounds were not life
threatening. No deaths were reported.
The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The children, both 10 years old, were grazed and in good condition.
Mayor
Mitch Landrieu urged witnesses to come forward with information during a
news conference Sunday night at a hospital where gunshot victims were
taken.
"These kinds of incidents will not go
unanswered. Somebody knows something. The way to stop this violence is
for you all to help," he said.
Mary Beth
Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, said federal
investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of
terrorism.
"It's strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans," she said.
As
many as 400 people came out for the second-line procession - a
boisterous New Orleans tradition - though only half that many were in
the immediate vicinity of the shooting, said Police Superintendent Ronal
Serpas. Officers were interspersed with the marchers, which is routine
for such events.
Police saw three suspects running from the scene. No arrests had been made as of early evening.
Outside
the hospital on Sunday night, Leonard Temple became teary as he talked
about a friend who was in surgery after being shot three times during
the parade. Temple was told the man was hit while trying to push his own
daughter out of the way.
"People were just
hanging out. We were just chilling. And this happened. Bad things always
happen to good people," said Temple, who was at the parade but didn't
see the shootings.
In the late afternoon, the scene was taped off and police had placed bullet casing markers in at least 10 spots.
Second-line
parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street,
often following behind a brass band. They can be planned events or
impromptu offshoots of other celebrations. They trace their origins to
the city's famous jazz funerals.
A social club
called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday's event. The group was
founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its
MySpace page.
The neighborhood where the
shooting happened is a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses,
some boarded up. As of last year, the 7th Ward's population was about 60
percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.
The
crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter
and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the
HBO TV series "Treme."
Sunday's violence comes
at a time when the city is struggling to pay for tens of millions of
dollars required under a federal consent decree to reform the police
department and the city jail.
Shootings at
parades and neighborhood celebrations have become more common in recent
years as the city has struggled with street crime. Earlier this year,
four people were shot following an argument in the French Quarter during
the last weekend of partying before Mardi Gras. The victims survived,
and several suspects were eventually arrested.
Police
vowed to make swift arrests. Serpas said it wasn't clear if particular
people in the second line were targeted, or if the shots were fired at
random.
"We'll get them. We have good resources in this neighborhood," Serpas said.
