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Is Mayor Cantrell contacting crime victims?

The mayor said this week she doesn't take sides in the carjacking case and supports victims of crime as well.

NEW ORLEANS — The recall filing follows public outrage over the mayor's travel expenses, and her support of a teenage carjacker.

The mayor said this week she doesn't take sides in the carjacking case and supports victims of crime as well.

So we checked in with victims of recent carjackings, and their families to see if they had been contacted.

You may remember on Wednesday the mayor said "Victims matter, and they need support and they need resources as well."

So are they getting that?

The news of Linda Frickey, 73, being dragged to her death by four carjackers was heard around the world. The family says strangers reached out to them, some so devastated by the brutal death, that they went to her funeral. And the family says Mayor LaToya Cantrell did contact them.

“She offered her condolences, and she did tell us if there was anything she could do she would, she was very compassionate,” said Kathy Richard, Frickey’s sister-in-law.

Kelleye Rhein, a mother, wife, and realtor was also dragged in a brutal daytime carjacking.

We talked at great length earlier today with Jason Rhein. He is the husband of Kelleye who was carjacked at the Costco while plumbing gas earlier this year. He says she's making a good bit of progress on her healing journey, but she still has medical issues related to the carjacking. He says neither the mayor nor her office, has ever reached out to him.

Jason did say that council members Helena Moreno and Joe Giarrusso called to offer support, something the family to this day appreciates.

Madison Bergeron and Stephanie Uddo, the two recent carjacking victims, who have been speaking out after they saw the mayor in the courtroom supporting the 13-year-old offender, also say the mayor has not called them.

The Frickey family remembers the mayor talking about punishment for the crime.

“She was saying that she would see to it that things would be, they would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” remembers Richard.

And if they were to talk to her again today, they would say the juvenile laws need to be revamped and updated, because children and teens are much more dangerous.

“They have no regard for authority. Our teachers can't control them,” she said.
And they feel the mayor’s intervention programs she talks about, need to be started much earlier in life.

“You don't go from playing hopscotch, to He-Man, to murdering, and beating and carjacking,” Richard emphasized.

And they are tired of the same criminals, like the ones who took Linda’s life, having the opportunity to offend over and over again.

“He should have been detained at the time. He should not have been on the streets.”

We asked the mayor’s office if she had a plan to start contacting victims and here is the response:

“The Mayor is not contacting a number of crime victims. The wife of a carjacking/shooting victim reached out and asked to speak to Mayor Cantrell, and the Mayor obliged.”

 

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