NEW ORLEANS — A woman was shot in the French Quarter Friday around noon, according to witnesses and the NOPD. The shooter fled the scene and has not been arrested.
"The guy came into Mango Daquiries and he kept hollering and cussing a barmaid out and the manager," one witness, who identified himself as an employee at another French Quarter restaurant, said. "She got shot while I was down here."
The victim is a woman in her 30s with a gunshot wound to the abdomen, according to an EMS spokesperson.
NOPD Chief Shaun Ferguson said the woman was in stable condition during a press conference on Bourbon Street after the shooting.
"It does not appear to be life threatening at this time," he said.
The shooter was not in custody at the time of the press conference. Ferguson said police have a description of a suspect, but are not ready to release it to the public.
Ferguson said the gun was pulled after an argument with staff at the bar.
"We're not sure if he was a customer or a patron," Ferguson said. "We do not know his intent when he entered the business."
The Friday shooting was not a domestic incident, Ferguson said, referring to a fatal attack at another Bourbon Street bar earlier this month. In that shooting, an ex-boyfriend allegedly shot a waitress when she tried to defuse a fight between the ex and her boyfriend.
New Orleans police responded to Mango Mango Daiquiris bar around noon Friday, disrupting traffic in the heart of New Orleans. Ferguson said the closest responding officers were blocks away from the bar when the call came in.
This is the second shooting on Bourbon Street in the past 24 hours.
Thursday night, a state trooper shot a person driving the wrong way down Bourbon Street towards people.