NEW ORLEANS — A pregnant woman and her unborn child are dead after a shooting in the Desire neighborhood.
It all happened at Higgins and Louisa in the Desire neighborhood around 1:15 p.m. Monday.
Officers arriving at the scene found the 35-year-old mother inside a car with gunshot wounds. Paramedics took her to a hospital where she and her unborn child were pronounced dead.
Our partners at The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate identified the slain mother as 35-year-old Roshelle Ro Lemon, a woman who lived to help others.
At a news conference Tuesday, NOPD Chief Shaun Ferguson said officers are investigating, but there are still no suspects.
"We are really at the beginning stages of this investigation. What I've given you is all that I can actually say right now because we really don't have much to this investigation,” Ferguson said. “We are relying on citizens if they have seen anything to tell us."
The victim’s aunt, Lynette Jones, told our partners at The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate that Lemon was raising two boys and was seven months pregnant with a third, to be named Ricky Jr.
Lemon made her living as a personal care assistant.
"It definitely speaks to the sinister acts that have been happening for some time quite sometime in the city of New Orleans,” Tamara Jackson with Silence is Violence said.
Jackson has seen her fair share of tragedy, but says the number of recent shootings involving women and children is now at a level she has not seen.
"I've been in this work for over 15 years,” she said. “And I can share with you that in 15 years, I've never seen this amount of females and children that are becoming victims of gun violence."
Lemon is not the only recent victim of gun violence in the Desire neighborhood. Not far from where she was shot, two more people were shot in the 3300 block of Clouet Street Tuesday. Their condition is unknown and it’s unclear if the violence is connected.
Chief Ferguson says officers are diligently working both cases, but says they can not do it alone.
“We ask citizens if they’ve seen anything to tell us,” he said.