NEW ORLEANS — Lives were shattered in an instant when someone started shooting near the corner of Bienville and North Salcedo Streets in New Orleans.
“I just want my daughter,” Florita Lazard said. “I want to see her again. That’s all.”
Lazard’s daughter, Ilia Henderson, 40, was one of two people killed in the shooting.
It happened just before 5:30 p.m., Monday.
Lazard says Henderson was a personal care assistant.
She was struck by gunfire while sitting on a porch with her patient who uses a wheelchair.
“I want to find answers,” Lazard said. “I want to find comfort. I want to know why this had to happen to her. She wasn’t doing nobody nothing. She was doing her job.”
According to witnesses, two masked men dressed in black, fired into a group of people on the street.
They heard more than a dozen shots.
One man, who did not want to be identified, told WWL-TV his cousin Santiago Rubio, 31, may have been the target.
Rubio was also struck and killed.
“Real tough," the man said. “You don’t just shoot into no crowd and kill innocent bystanders. That **** is crazy man.”
A third person was wounded in the shooting. His condition is unknown.
Family members of the victims say somebody knows something and the only way they’re going to get closure is for someone to come forward and identify the shooters.
“I think we just need to stop the violence," the cousin said. “This **** is getting out of hand. How you take my cousin from me?”
“It really hit home because I just laid my grand daughter to rest,” Lazard said. “She got killed in a car accident. Now it’s my daughter. What’s next? I can’t take it. I can’t.”
The gunmen hopped in a car and drove away. They were still on the run as of Tuesday afternoon.
If you have any information about this shooting, please call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111. You don’t have to give your name.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
