NEW ORLEANS — Carneal Knapper, Jr. was fatally shot with two guns tucked in his waistband.
Knapper. 30, was gunned down in front of Willie Mae’s Scotch House on March 28 and ten days later, New Orleans Police arrested Larry Davis, an employee of the iconic restaurant, in the killing.
In an arrest warrant affidavit filed against Davis, 32, detectives state that the entire shooting was captured by a security camera. They describe an argument that ended with three different people brandishing guns, including the victim, but only Davis firing off shots.
Knapper went to the restaurant at 2401 St. Ann St. at about 6 p.m., looking for “a bag he previously left behind,” the detectives wrote. The security camera footage and witness statements show that “the victim then became involved in a verbal argument with employees of the restaurant.”
At that point “the victim pulls out two pistols from his waistband showing the two male employees he was arguing with he was armed,” NOPD Detective Matthew Riffle wrote.
Davis then grabbed a pistol of his own from the trunk of a car, the detective wrote, and began firing.
“The victim falls to the ground immediately and Larry continues to shoot as the victim is on the ground,” Riffle wrote.
Riffle added, “It was clear the victim never reached or pulled his weapons again.” Knapper died at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds.
During the confrontation, the second employee also grabbed a gun – a rifle – “but does not appear to shoot the rifle at any point,” the affidavit states. The detective noted that the security camera “confirmed one of the employees did, in fact, take the victim’s bag and place it in a vehicle.”
When the NOPD went to serve the warrant on the morning of May 8, Davis barricaded himself inside a house in the 1900 block of Annunciation St. The SWAT team and U.S. Marshals took Davis into custody after a two-hour standoff, police said.
Davis was booked with second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. He remains locked up at the Orleans Justice Center on bail of $850,000, court records show.
Carneal “Fafa” Knapper attended Dillard University and is survived by two sons, according to his obituary.
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