5 shot, including 2 killed, in Lower 9th Ward: NOPD

Updated 9:25 PM; Posted 6:56 PM
By Marie Simoneaux
msimoneaux@nola.com,
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

Five people were shot, including two killed, in the Lower 9th Ward Tuesday night (Feb. 13), New Orleans police reported.

One man died on scene and another man died on the way to a hospital, police said. Three others were being treated at local hospitals.

A red Nissan Altima at a gas station in the 5100 block of St. Claude Avenue had shattered windows, more than a dozen bullet holes in the driver's door and flat front tires.

All the victims were in the car at the time of the shooting, police said. The car was in the 5400 block of Andry Street when more than one person began firing into it, according to NOPD spokeswoman Ambria Washington. The victims then drove themselves about two blocks away to the gas station on St. Claude Avenue, police said.

Police found the body of a man in the back seat of the car and he was pronounced dead on the scene.

A man looking onto the scene from the neutral ground said he lives about 6 blocks away and was inside his home when he heard many shots fired.

"It sounded like they had a war going on," he said.
"It's crazy. This is crazy. This is foolish, what are they killing each other for? This is just foolish for our people to be killing each other. For what?"

The man declined to give his name, but said he has lived in the neighborhood for 62 years and said the area around the store where the shooting took place is often a rough place. "This isn't new."

Another man who also said he lives a few blocks away described hearing "hundreds" of gunshots ring out around 8:30 p.m. "It sounded like we were in Iraq or something.

"This happens too much. It needs to stop. What they get out of it, I don't know," he said, shaking his head.

A few blocks away from the scene where the victim's body was found, a large crowd gathered on the porch and in the yard of one of the victims' mother's home on St. Claude, according to a friend of the family. At least two women could be heard sobbing as they were comforted by the group outside the home. Many of the people comforting the two women were wearing Mardi Gras shirts and hats.

"I don't know what happened, how could this have happened? My son was with me all day, this ain't real ...," a woman could be heard saying before she ran into the home.

The crowd looked on as investigators set up a 360 degree camera at the Andry Street scene and placed at least 20 green evidence cones in a lot on the corner of Andry Street and St. Claude Avenue.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/...st_claude.html