NEW ORLEANS — There is a growing roadside memorial to yet another young person gunned down on the streets of New Orleans.
According to police, a 15-year-old boy, later identified by the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office as Tyvien Jirouard, was killed, and a 25-year-old man was wounded in a shooting near Evans Playground in the 2100 block of Soniat Street Monday evening. Neighbors say some members of the Sophie B. Wright football team were practicing on the field around 5:30, Monday afternoon when the shooting started.
Leroy Singleton lives across the street from the playground.
“I came out and I looked and then I seen a car pass by. Then I saw somebody just pop out with ski mask on and I went oh, that’s when there were some shots fired and that’s when I just started running back, right back there,” Singleton said.
Police confirmed the 25-year-old was the target of the shooting. Michelle Walpole also lives near the park.
“I was told that a bullet has hit one of the coaches that was in the park coaching the football team and also hit one of the players who was in the park,” Walpole said.
Walpole said neighbors counted up to ten shots fired. She called the shooting extremely disturbing.
“I’m just heartbroken as a mother myself that you could send your child into a public park to practice football and he doesn’t come home. It’s unfathomable to me.”
Anthony Stewart, 19, said it’s upsetting to learn a fellow teenager lost his life near the field Stewart has enjoyed all his life.
“He’s got his whole life ahead of him,” Stewart said. “He’s playing football. Probably wanted to join the NFL and this his life just ended out of the blue. It’s just sad, you know.”
Neighbors tell us they’ve had problems here at Evans Playground in the past, including a recent shooting on the basketball court.
"It’s very nerve racking you know to have stuff like that happen around you,” Singleton said. “You don’t feel safe walking anywhere.”
“The only thing I can take out of this, is this was a targeted shooting,” Walpole said. “That’s just what I’m telling myself, trying to hope that if I’m walking my dog or my kid is playing in the park that nobody would target a stranger.”
The NOPD did not release the names of the shooting victims.
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