NEW ORLEANS — When Reg Boulie came to work Monday morning, just three days into the start of a new year, he wasn’t expecting to see one of his co-workers struggling to pull a body out of the street.
“He was an older guy, so I went down there to kind of give him a hand,” Boulie said. “As I got closer, I noticed it was a person that was gasping for air. When I got out, he said call 911.”
Just before 10 a.m. Monday morning, police were notified about a juvenile victim being shot in the 14000 of Michoud Boulevard in New Orleans East, not far away from the old Six Flags.
By the time EMS arrived, the victim was dead. The Orleans Parish Coroner's Office later said the youth was 12-year-old Derrick Cash.
Boulie says this was his first time seeing a dead body in the road, but as is evidence from a nearby street sign that was shot up, this is not the first instance of lawlessness happening back there.
He says he wishes there was something police could do to keep things back there in check.
“They really need crime cameras back here,” Boulie said. “Because it would probably deter people from doing all this senseless stuff. The killing needs to stop.”
Boulie says he grew up in the area and that he’s never seen the East as bad as it is right now. He says he wants better for his community, more specifically, its youth.
“We really need to do better. It’s getting out of hand,” he said. “It makes people not want to be here anymore. We had a theme park. We had a mall. We just don’t have those things, nothing for the young kids to get into.”
New year. Same City.
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