NEW ORLEANS — The mother of a murdered 9-year-old New Orleans boy was arrested shortly before midnight Wednesday.
Donna Howard, 32, was booked into the Orleans Parish jail on cruelty to a juvenile, accessory after the fact and contributing to the delinquency of juveniles charges.
Her son, Devante Bryant, was gunned down in front of his home on Pauger Street in the 7th ward last week. Two teenagers were also wounded in the shooting.
New Orleans police continue to search for suspects in the case.
Court records show that police arrested Howard for allegedly failing to take her older son to the hospital for treatment for a gunshot wound, or notifying the police that he had been shot.
According to the arrest report, her 14-year-old son had escaped from a juvenile detention center and was found with an untreated gunshot wound to his leg Wednesday after a stolen car that he was in crashed.
It was not immediately clear when or how he escaped custody.
The teen, who was wanted on multiple unspecified charges, was taken to Children's Hospital for treatment, where he told detectives that he had been shot 1-2 weeks ago while walking out of a store.
He said he treated the wound at a friend's house with supplies from the pharmacy, then called his mother and told her what happened. He said he did not go to the hospital because he did not want to go back to jail.
When asked how his mother responded, the teen "stared at the ceiling and refused to answer," the arrest report shows.
However, the arrest report claims that police have surveillance footage from Howard's Pauger Street house that shows she and her son together multiple times after he was shot, including when he was in the stolen vehicle.
Howard was arrested and booked late Wednesday night. She was scheduled for a bond hearing Thursday morning.
Her son Devante was one of three children sitting on a stoop in the 7th Ward on the evening of July 13 when someone came around the corner and opened fire on them.
Devante was shot in the head and died on the scene. The two other victims, both in their early teens, were wounded in the shooting but were in stable condition.
It is unclear if the 14-year-old was at the scene of the shooting where the 9-year-old was killed.
Howard was interviewed on WWL-TV in February after one of her sons, an 11-year-old, was arrested for a string of violent robberies around New Orleans.
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