Nineteen Shot In New Orleans Mother’s Day Parade

Nineteen people including two children
were shot in New Orleans on Sunday when
gunfire erupted at a Mother’s Day parade,
and city police said they were searching for
three suspects.
Ten men, seven woman, a girl and a boy both
age 10 were hit when wild gunfire opened up
at about 1:45 p.m. as the parade marched
along North Villere Street, according to police
spokesman Garry Flot.
Two victims are undergoing surgery, Flot said
in a statement. The children were grazed and
are in good condition, he said. It was unclear
if the victims were marching or bystanders
watching the parade.
Police superintendent Ronal Serpas told
reporters that officers saw three suspects
running away, with one about age 18 to 22. No
arrests were made.
“It appears that these two or three people, for
reasons unknown to us, started shooting at,
towards or in the crowd,” Serpas said, adding
that the incident was over in “just a couple of
seconds.”
Serpas said a witness reported hearing two
different types of gunshot, which he said
indicated two weapons were involved.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu called the shooting part
of “the relentless drum beat of violence” on
the streets of New Orleans.
“It’s a culture of violence that has enveloped
the city for a long, long period of time,”
Landrieu told a news conference outside
University Hospital, where three victims were
being treated for serious injuries.
Photographs of the aftermath in the Times-
Picayune newspaper showed a man lying on his
stomach beside a pool of blood, being helped
by two bystanders. Other photos showed a
man in shorts sitting on a cobbled street, his
calf bleeding and covered with a bandana.
Emergency medical responders took 11 people
to Interim LSU Public Hospital in New Orleans,
according to hospital spokesman Marvin
McGraw
Violent crime in New Orleans ranks above the
national average in FBI surveys. A poll of city
residents in 2010 found crime to be their
greatest concern.
In February, four people were wounded in a
shooting outside a nightclub in the city’s
French Quarter as crowds gathered for Mardi
Gras celebrations.