NEW ORLEANS — Lionel Oliver woke up to the sound of gunshots Thursday night.
"It was just chaos," he said. "You hear people screaming, yelling, and crying, and that's all you hear."
Two people were killed and three more wounded at the corner of St. Andrew Street and Rev. John Raphael Jr. Way, just outside his home in Central City.
Sadly, it's not the first time he's heard gunshots outside his front door.
"The gun violence is crazy right here – shots all the time," he said. "Four months ago, a bullet came through my house. They shot up literally all these houses.”
Just across the street, the New Hope Baptist Church was holding choir practice when the shooting happened.
Rev. Jamaal Weathersby said that no one inside the church was hurt, but having a shooting so close to the church just adds to the fear his congregation already feels right now.
"We're in a position now where people are cautious when they get out of the car at the grocery store, driving on the I-10, and, of course, going to church," he said.
But while some people see his neighborhood and the city of New Orleans as a lost cause, he draws his strength from hope. Hope that he finds in his faith and in the community around him.
"We don't do this alone," Weathersby said. "We need the police. We need the council. We need the court system, the criminal justice system to all work together so that we can be able to come to a solution."
New Orleans police have not named any suspects or identified a motive in the shooting.
If you have any information that can help police solve this case, call CRIMESTOPPERS at 504-822-1111.
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