NEW ORLEANS — Sounds of gunfire caught on a home surveillance system shatters the silence of a New Orleans neighborhood, echoing through the streets of the Seventh Ward early Monday morning.
”You can think maybe it’s fireworks, but all too often in the middle of the night you know what it was,” said Beaux Jones who lives nearby.
According to police, a drive-by shooting left a 25-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman dead. Police say they were in a car on Bayou Road, near the intersection with North Broad Street. Another car pulled up and someone inside started shooting.
“The first thing that came to my mind was, I’ve been woken up by that before,” said Jones.
Jones said last year there was a similar drive-by shooting in the same spot. According to police that shooting left one man dead.
As president of the neighborhood association, Jones says violent crime in one area is a problem for the entire city.
“Until this block sees that murder as one of its own, we’re going to continue to rationalize and we’re going to continue to say somebody else’s problem,” said Jones.
“We must work together to ensure the safety of our city,” said NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson during a news conference Wednesday addressing violent crime in the city.
Ferguson said when it comes to violent crimes, specifically involving guns, the community is critical.
“Our community is just as much a partner as any other component of the criminal justice system,” said Ferguson.
So far this year in New Orleans there have been 294 reported non-deadly shootings and 122 homicides. Fourteen of those homicides happened in last two weeks. Jones says because those numbers represent people, it’s time for people to see more than numbers.
“We as a community have to come together and keep our eyes on the street. We don’t need to just lock our doors and turn around,” said Jones. “We have to see what’s going on. We have to meet our neighbors.”
Ferguson said NOPD is using every tactic and resource possible, leading to 1,134 guns taken off the streets so far this year and a homicide solve rate of 57 percent.
Jones hopes stronger connections between neighbors and NOPD can help silence the sounds of violence.
“It’s not any individual’s responsibility. It’s all of our responsibility to improve to opportunities to improve the resilience of our city,” said Jones.
Police are still searching for the person responsible for that shooting Monday. If you know anything that could help track them down, call NOPD.