NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department is investigating the death of one of its own.
Tuesday morning, dozens of NOPD officers including department commanders and Mayor Latoya Cantrell visited a very active crime scene in Gentilly.
Police were called there to conduct a welfare check at a home in the 5100 block of Touro Street. That’s when law enforcement was sent at the request of a family member or friend who is concerned about a person’s mental health.
Police found the person they were sent to check on dead inside the home.
“Upon further investigation, it was learned that it is in fact one of our own police officers,” Ferguson said. “It is a female. I won’t give her name because we’re still in the process of informing the family.”
Chief Ferguson said the officer had a gunshot wound. He wouldn’t say where she was shot.
“What I can say at this time it is a 36-year-old female, been on the job as many as nine years, a nine-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department,” Ferguson said.
Neighbors are shocked and saddened by her death. One told WWL-TV; the officer needed some help starting her car. He said 15 minutes later, she was dead.
“I could hear it. I heard the shot, and I heard the lady screaming so I walked back outside to see what was going on.,” Earvin Darby said. “It’s still got me shaking just to be here right now.”
There was no indication the woman was in any kind of distress, Darby added.
His father Adrian Darby said the officer had a husband and two school-age children.
“You just never know what people are going through,” Adrian Darby said. “To do this so close to Christmas with kids, it’s, I have kids and a wife, it’s devastating.”
Chief Ferguson talked about the added pressures police officers have in a profession that’s under constant scrutiny.
There’s a lot that comes with the job he said.
“It’s a bad day, you know, and I just ask that you keep our officers and this community and this family in your prayers," he said.
Ferguson admits this is a particularly tough time for the police department. This is the second death of an NOPD employee in as many weeks. Last week, a department budget analyst Yolanda Dillion was working as an Uber driver and was stabbed to death by a passenger.
► 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.