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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

10 Wounded Near New Orleans’ French Quarter

Ten people were shot and wounded early Sunday near the French Quarter in New Orleans. Hours later in another part of town another shooting killed two men and wounded two others.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ten people were shot and wounded early Sunday near the French Quarter in New Orleans. Hours later in another part of town another shooting killed two men and wounded two others.

Police said both shootings are under investigation, and did not immediately draw any connection between them.

Two of the 10 people shot on Canal Street near the French Quarter were in critical condition in hospitals, Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said. No arrests were announced by midday Sunday, and police had not released information about any of the victims.

"What happened in our city overnight was a cowardly and senseless act that we cannot and will not tolerate," Ferguson said in a statement.

He said New Orleans has seen a significant reduction in violent crime over the past four years.

Ferguson told The New Orleans Advocate/Times-Picayune that a person of interest has been detained, but it was not clear whether the person had any connection to the shooting.

The first shootings happened about 3:20 a.m. on a busy commercial block of Canal Street that has streetcar tracks and is near many hotels.

Ferguson said police responded quickly, as patrols had been heightened for this weekend's Bayou Classic, the annual Thanksgiving weekend football game between Grambling State and Southern University at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

"While this investigation is in the very beginning stages, one thing is certain — we will not stop until we identify and arrest those responsible," Ferguson said.

Mayor Latoya Cantrell also pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice.

"The shootings on Canal Street early this morning were an ugly disruption of an otherwise beautiful holiday weekend. We will do everything we can to wrap the victims and their families in our love and support, and to bring the criminals responsible to justice," she said via Twitter on Sunday.

Kenneth Culbreth told the Advocate/Times-Picayune that he went into a CVS pharmacy in the early morning hours to make a quick purchase. Moments later, he walked out to a crime scene.

"On my way out of the CVS, I heard pops," Culbreth said. "It was so many I couldn't keep count."

Culbreth spent the rest of the morning watching law enforcement and emergency vehicles moving in and out at a rapid pace.

The shooting on Canal Street happened near the spot where 10 people were shot, one of them fatally, on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter on Nov. 27, 2016. One man was convicted of attempted manslaughter and obstruction of justice, but jurors could not reach a verdict on a second-degree murder charge. Another man awaits trial.

The shooting Sunday afternoon that killed two men and wounded two others happened in a residential area about 3 miles north of the French Quarter.

Categories / Criminal

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