Manhunt
underway after New Orleans gunmen shoot 16 Greg Toppo, USATODAY 12:35 p.m. EST November 23,
2015
At least 16 people
were hospitalized when shots rang out a New Orleans playground. Police say the
crowd was gathered for what looked to be an impromptu shooting of a music
video.
A manhunt was
underway across New Orleans on Monday after 16 people were shot during a
gunfight at an impromptu music video recording in a city park, authorities said. The victims were
all in stable condition.
The shooting
broke out late Sunday at Bunny Friend Park in the Upper Ninth Ward where
about 500 people were gathered for the video shoot, officials said. "At the
end of the day it's really hard to police against a bunch of guys who decide to
pull out guns and settle disputes with 300 people between them," Mayor
Mitch Landrieu said at a news conference.
The shooting
followed a second-line parade by the Nine Times Social & Pleasure Club that
had taken place a block or two from the shooting scene, Landrieu said. Witnesses told
WWL-TV that at least two gunmen fired into the crowd. Detectives are combing the
neighborhood for surveillance video of the incident or suspects.
City police
officers had been monitoring the parade, but witnesses said they were beginning
to disperse as the after-party kept going, The (New Orleans)
Times-Picayune reported. As soon as gunshots were heard, witnesses said,
officers were on the scene immediately.
Police
spokesman Tyler Gamble told the Associated Press that police were on their way
to break up the crowd when gunfire erupted. He said there were two groups at
the park — those who had walked there in the parade and those watching or
participating in the video. He said it was being made without a permit.
The shooting's
aftermath was "chaotic," The Times-Picayune reported, with
several people lying around the park's main building and hats and possessions
scattered around the playground. Police Chief Michael Harrison said he believed
there were several shooters.
Several
ambulances were reported at the scene, which was cordoned off by police.According to FrenchQuarter.com, second line parades are "the descendants of the New Orleans' famous jazz funerals and, apart from a casket, mourners and a cemetery visit, they carry many of the same traditions with them as they march down the streets." There are dozens of second line parades scheduled throughout the year and throughout the city, usually on Sunday afternoons, according to the website. They range in size, level of organization and traditions.
Each parade includes a brass band and street dancing by members wearing "brightly colored suits, sashes, hats and bonnets, parasols and banners," the website said.
Landrieu in January said the number of murders in New Orleans last year reached a 43-year low at 150, the lowest since 1971. City officials said the downward trend represented the third consecutive year in which murders had declined. They said New Orleans in 2014 had its lowest murder rate in over a decade, with 39.6 victims per 100,000 people.
The Times-Picayune reported that as of Sunday the city's 2015 murder rate stood at 138. The latest was the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old man on Nov. 14.
Contributing: WWL-TV, New Orleans; The Associated Press. Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo
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