NEW ORLEANS — They punched and carjacked a 34-year-old woman in a parking lot in the Marigny on Sept. 19. The next afternoon, they launched the same brazen carjacking attack on a mother in the parking lot at New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts.
A rampaging group of juveniles – including a 14-year-old – weren’t done. About eight hours after the NOCCA attack, they ambushed a man in Central City, splitting open his lip with a series of punches, dragging him out of the driver’s seat, then stealing his pickup truck.
“The fellow there introduced himself by punching me in the face, immediately,” the victim recalled in an exclusive interview with WWL-TV. “There was not a word spoken. He finally said, ‘Get out of the car. I want the car.’ ”
The attack took place at Thalia and Dorgenois streets near an entertainment venue. A 67-year-old man had attended with a friend when they were surrounded by two young robbers before they had a chance to react.
“Out of nowhere, these two people appeared, one on either door,” he said.
Multiple sources say the same group of juveniles arrested in the NOCCA carjacking, including a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old, are now linked to the Central City and Marigny attacks.
The victims’ descriptions and accounts were nearly identical: no gun, no knife, no warning. In each case, the car door was jerked opened and a young robber begins throwing punches to the face without warning.
“There's a group out here playing vehicular whack-a-mole essentially,” said the 34-year-old Marigny victim.
The Central City victim said he had heard about the NOCCA attack in the news. Becoming the next victim was the last thing he could imagine.
When the surprise attack unfolded, the man said his first move was to fight back. The two scrapped by the door, but as the initial attacker ran off, the second suspect approached with a calm menace, the victim recalled.
“The threat was very, very direct: ‘I will hurt you badly.’ ” he recalled. “He was very direct. And his eyes were wide open looking at me. And he was telling me, what was going to happen next. He was very convincing.”
After reading about the other attacks and absorbing what happened to him, the victim is now breathing a sigh of relief. His lip is healing and his truck was recovered without a scratch.
“After I had a chance to think about it, now feel I was really, really lucky,” he said. “I could be dead. I could be in a hospital room. If one of those kids had a knife or a gun, I pushed them too hard.”
Three of the suspects were arrested in the NOCCA carjacking, and the NOPD has confirmed the same group is now linked to the other two carjackings. The juveniles remain in custody awaiting a detention hearing.