NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson addressed the violent crime in the city after a particularly bloody weekend that left more than a dozen people wounded and several dead.
Over the weekend, two people were killed and at least 17 were injured in shootings throughout the city, including a French Quarter gunfight that wounded five on Bourbon Street during one of the busiest times of the week.
Ferguson called the weekend shootings "very disturbing," but said the NOPD was committed to reducing high number of violent crimes the city has seen this year.
He said the numerous violent incidents over the weekend were a "black eye" in the face of the NOPD's efforts to reduce crime, citing the fact that homicides were slightly down in the two months leading up to the weekend.
The weekend started on a violent note when a 7-year-old boy was brought to a New Orleans emergency room with a gunshot wound sometime shortly after midnight. That shooting happened a block east of Downman Road, about a quarter of a mile north of Chef Menteur Highway. It's still unclear how the boy was shot or by who.
In another shooting early Sunday morning, five people were wounded by gunfire in the French Quarter around 3 a.m. after an argument broke out between two people near the intersection of Bourbon Street and Orleans Street, in the middle of the city's tourism center during one of the busiest times of the week.
One person was detained in connection with that shooting.
Ferguson said the Bourbon Street argument between two men escalated to gunfire, with several bystanders injured as they exchanged shots in the middle of the busy area.
One of the shooters was among the wounded, and Ferguson said he had been detained in connection with the shooting. However, the other shooter remains unknown and at large as of Monday afternoon.
Less than two hours later, four more people were shot in the Treme near Saint Louis Cemetery No. 2. One of those victims, identified only as a juvenile, died from his injuries. Three others were hospitalized.
According to our partners at the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate, a 15-year-old suspect was arrested in connection with that shooting after going to his parent's house to pack his belongings to leave town.
The relative reportedly called the police after the teenager told them that he had just shot somebody, whose name, the newspaper said, matched one of the hospitalized victims.
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