Father and seven-month-old son killed

The Louisiana Weekly Staff Reports

In a year that witnessed a drop in murders with a rise in shootings in New Orleans, the severity of the problem of violence in the city was underscored Wednesday by the murders of a seven-month-old baby and its father on the Crescent City Connection.

New Orleans police say Deshawn Butler, 25, and his baby, Deshawn Kinard, were sitting in the backseat when another man shot up the car. Butler and his son were killed Wednesday night in the 2100 block of Gen, de Gaulle Drive after someone opened fire on the car they were riding in. Police say the infant died in his car seat from a single bull to the head while Deshawn Butler also died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.

In a candlelight vigil Thursday night in Algiers, family members and supporters gathered seeking answers to the senseless crime that claimed the life of a seven-month-old.

“He didn’t deserve this, he hadn’t even started crawling yet. Why would you all do this?,” Amy Kinard, the infant’s grieving mother said at Thursday’s vigil.

“The hurt and the pain you’ve brought upon them, you wouldn’t want this on no one, not even your own family,” Betty Russell said Thursday night at the vigil.

“It’s time for us to stop. All of our Black men are just going down and being shot like dogs on the street,” Russell added.

“There’s nothing I can say right now that would be of help. They’re still in the state of shock,” Patricia Watson, director of the Family Center of Hope, which offers counseling and support to grieving mothers across New Orleans.

“I really don’t like these talks and welcoming another mother in our group. Somebody has to do something,” Watson said.

Seven-month-old Deshawn Kinard is the latest in a growing line of young murder victims in New Orleans that include one-year-old Londyn Samuels who was killed in Central City on August 29 and 11-year-old Arabian Gayles, who was fatally shot while rocking her baby cousin to sleep on Labor Day.

Police don’t have a suspect yet, but believe he’s driving a black SUV, and they believed that the men knew each other.

Crimestoppers is offering $15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for these murders. For more information, call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.

This article originally published in the November 18, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.