NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans police arrested a man in connection with the killing of a Dillard University nursing student who was previously tried for a 2006 quadruple murder.
24-year-old Kevin Amison was booked into Orleans Parish Prison Tuesday morning.
It leaves the family of the Dillard student, Kendall Raines, wondering why Amison was still on the street.
'Kendall said, ouch. As far as we know Kendall's last words was ouch,' said Harold Gordon, father of the victim.
His New Orleans East family is in mourning after their eldest son was gunned down near Louisa and Almonaster early Saturday morning.
'It's unimaginable,' Gordon said in an interview Sunday.
Raines' younger brother was driving when the shooting started. Family members said they had pulled up at a gas station on Louisa Street at 3:30 Saturday morning.
'He asked one of the guys was the gas station open. The guy said 'huh.' And he said nevermind and went in the gas station,' Gordon said.
When Kendall Raines came out one of the men gave him a look, and according to Gordon, after they pumped their gas, the group of men followed them.
'They followed him out the gas station and shot the car up,' Gordon said.
Police said Raines' brother jumped on the interstate to avoid the gunfire. They said he didn't even realize his brother had been shot until they got off the interstate further down on Downman Road, where he crashed into the guard rail in a panic.
'The people or person that did this must be taken off the street,' Gordon said.
Now, Gordon wonders why one of the suspects, 24-year-old Kevin Amison, was still on the street in the first place. Amison was charged with first-degree murder in 2006 after four men were gunned down outside a home in Treme.
His was the first death-penalty trial after Katrina, and the jury deadlocked on the verdict.
'Kevin Amison presented what some believe was a credible alibi defense that he was not in the city of New Orleans or in the state of Louisiana at the time that the homicides occurred and he presented witnesses to support that,' said Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro.
The case was initially tried under his predecessor, Eddie Jordan. Cannizzaro said he looked at the case when he first took office. He said he wanted to re-try Kevin Amison for the murders; however, a key witness wouldn't cooperate.
'A mother who sat on the porch and begged with the shooter, begged with the defendants, do not shoot my children, do not shoot my sons, refused to come forward and testify in a second trial,' Cannizzaro said.
Amison's brother, Raymond, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the murders and is now serving 10 years in prison.
'When you lose the cooperation of an essential witness and you lose the cooperation of the mother of two of the victims, it makes our task almost impossible,' Cannizzaro said.
It makes Gordon's pleas for help all the more poignant.
'If anybody know anything about what happened, please, say somethin. Because this have to be stopped. It's my kid today. It could be your kid or your brother tomorrow,' Gordon said.
New Orleans police are still searching for a second suspect in Raines' murder. They're looking for 20-year-old Freddie Smooth. If you have any information on Smooth's whereabouts, you're urged to call crimestoppers at 822-1111.
