NEW ORLEANS — Family members have identified the juvenile killed in New Orleans East Tuesday as 14-year-old Bernell James, an 8th grader at Kipp Morial School. He was one of three teenagers shot and killed in the area this week.
Around 5 p.m. Tuesday, NOPD officers were called to the Chateau D’Orleans apartment complex on Chef Menteur Highway. Inside an apartment, they found James suffering from a gunshot wound. He died before he could be taken to the hospital.
That same day, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office reported a juvenile had been shot and killed in Metairie. WWL-TV has since learned he was also a teenager, though his identity and exact age has not been released by the coroner. Detectives believe he and another teenager were struggling with a gun inside an apartment on Lake Avenue when it went off.
And on Sunday night, 17-year-old Layla Scott was one of two people killed in a shooting at the corner of Esplanade and North Claiborne Avenues. According to the NOPD, multiple people approached Scott and 24-year-old Ahmontae Wishom and began firing. Wishom died at the scene, while Scott was taken to the hospital where she died shortly after.
Akasia Lee-Nicholas, founder of local nonprofit Sheroes which brings mothers who have lost children together, was dismayed to hear of more deaths. “Somebody else is a part of a club that we didn't even subscribe to,” she told WWL-TV. “I'm just trying to figure out when it’s going to stop? When will a mother not have to bury a child? When will it be picking out cars and houses as opposed to caskets?”
Lee-Nicholas said the timing of this week’s three tragedies is especially heartbreaking, as the holidays can be a difficult time for grieving families. “When I fix meals that I know that he would like I can just hear him saying, yeah, Mama, I want a plate of that,” she said of her own son, Devon, who died of epilepsy in 2019.
To help mothers get through the holidays, Sheroes organizes a yearly Christmas celebration.
To get in contact with the group, email supersheros504@gmail.com or call 504-603-6624. You can also submit your contact info here.
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