NEW ORLEANS — The owners of the family restaurant Mandina’s Restaurant had to make a difficult decision the morning after one of their servers was gunned down as he waited on customers at the restaurant.
Does the restaurant reopen or remain closed?
The next day after Hilbert Walker III was killed and a stray bullet injured a customer dining inside, Cindy Mandina, the fourth-generation family owner, tells The Times-Picayune that the owners met to discuss what to do next.
"Another restaurant owner called me crying. Everyone is feeling this," Mandina tells the newspaper.
They ultimately decided that the best choice was to move forward and reopen the restaurant on Monday.
Mandina says the Louisiana Restaurant Association is lending help to her staff by connecting them with trauma counseling services.
Friday night, 23-year-old Hilbert Walker III was serving customers outside the restaurant on the first night of Jazz Fest when a car pulled up and two people got out and shot Walker, killing him on the spot.
A stray bullet hit and injured a Chicago woman dining inside. She was a tourist in town for Jazz Fest.
NOPD Interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork says Walker was the killers' target and they are actively searching for the gunmen.
Woodfork also says while the shooting happened on the first day of Jazz Fest, the shooting was not near the festival grounds.
“Since the incident, unfortunately, occurred on the opening day of Jazz Fest at this popular well-known restaurant in the city, we wanted to ensure that the public knows that the public and also our tourists that this was an isolated incident that did not occur in the vicinity of the festival."
The Superintendent says she will be adding extra patrols in the area around the festival grounds in the wake of the shooting.
“I can't give you the exact numbers but there are officers deployed from each of our districts to that area and also their offices in and around the detail, in and around the festival, who are working a pay detail. So, it's more than adequate, adequately staffed. We've officers in the interior and exterior, you have about a total of maybe 150 to 180 officers in and around the area, working traffic and actually on the festival grounds,” Woodfork said.
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