“HE HAS A GUN. HE BROUGHT A GUN ONTO MY PROPERTY TO TAKE THINGS THAT DON'T BELONG TO HIM.”
A burglary victim in New Orleans didn’t mince words after a group of people, at least one of them armed, climbed his fence Tuesday morning and burglarized his car.
According to the car’s owner, Bradley King, police said at least one of the suspects is a juvenile offender that has been in and out of jail several times.
King posted surveillance video to Facebook, showing the scene outside his home as the group pulls up, gets out and breaks into his car. He had a message along with the video.
“This is where you should be furious, and this is where we ALL need to raise hell and get some things changed around here,” King wrote. “The detective immediately recognized by name one of the people who did this to me. He's been charged multiple times, and juvenile court always lets him off with a slap on the wrist.”
NOPD has not officially identified any of the suspects.
The burglary occurred just after midnight on May 7. According to police, four-to-five suspects jumped a 7-8 foot iron fence and stole from a vehicle parked in the driveway.
At least one of them was carrying a gun.
“I couldn't care less if he's under 18 years old. Looks to me like he's already in the midst of an illustrious criminal career, and the less respect he has for the law, the more severe the crimes will become, until someone ends up dead,” King wrote. “None of these kids/people should be walking the streets.”
According to statistics obtained by WWL-TV, violent crime by juvenile offenders isn’t just on the rise, it’s hitting record levels.
Juvenile felony arrests in New Orleans have more than doubled in three years, from 300 in 2016 to 735 in 2018. Inside those numbers there is an even more troubling trend. Juvenile violent crimes prosecuted by the DA's office – shootings, armed robberies and sexual assaults – jumped nearly 10-fold since 2015, spiking from 37 cases in 2015 to 339 last year, according to statistic compiled by Orleans Parish Juvenile Court.
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NOPD officials announced Tuesday they were investigating similar vehicle burglaries in the same neighborhood that had happened three days earlier, on May 4.
In that investigation, a group of four people wearing hooded sweatshirts were seen burglarizing multiple cars around 2:20 a.m. by smashing windows. They were seen driving away in a silver/gray four-door sedan, with a similar description as the one captured in King's video.
Anyone with information regarding these incidents is asked to contact NOPD Second District detectives at 504-658-6020, or call anonymously to Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at 1-877-903-STOP.