Bloody week in New Orleans as residents gather to remember slain loved ones
27th April 2015 · 0 Comments
Dozens of residents gathered in front of NOPD headquarters Wednesday evening to talk about the loved ones they have lost to violence and the city’s ongoing struggle with violent crime. Among them were mothers still grieving and looking for answers and closure after the murder of their children.
FOX 8 News reported that Cynthia Glover fought back tears as she told the station that only one of her four children is still alive. She shared photos of the other three who were lost to violent crime, explaining that she came to Wednesday’s memorial for victims of crime in the hope that her story might somehow make a difference.
“I just want them to look at my kids, just look and see. Look what happened, look what happened. I don’t want no other parent to feel like me,” Glover told FOX 8.
Glover was joined at the candlelight vigil by many others also looking for an end to their grief and answers after losing loved ones to violence.
“I still to this day do not know who did this to my child and it hurts so bad,” Wanda Cobbins said.
Some of those in attendance at the candlelight vigil, held as part of the observance of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week held signs with a message that has been posted throughout the city for years as New Orleans continues to try to shed its image as the nation’s murder capital. The message: Thou shall not kill.
NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison attended the vigil and told those gathered outside police headquarters that his top priority is making sure that every neighborhood in New Orleans is safe.
“I am fully committed to continuing to rebuild this police department with an aggressive recruiting campaign, giving the officers new tools and equipment to do their job,” Harrison read in a prepared statement Wednesday..
Orleans Parish D.A. Leon Cannizzaro also attended the vigil and urged residents to come forward to share information that can help him to keep dangerous people off the streets of New Orleans.
“It’s a great sacrifice and sometimes very difficult for people to come forward and get involved in the cases of violence, you know, our commitment to them is simply if you come forward we’re going to stay with you,” Cannizzaro said.
As the candlelight vigil drew to a close, participants released butterflies that symbolized their collective hope that positive change will take root in New Orleans.
“You wake up every morning look for your kids, I did, they’re not there, they’re gone, they ain’t never coming back and I don’t want another parent to feel the way I feel cause everyday is torture for me,” Glover said.
FOX 8 News last week also told the story of a 55-year-old woman who was arrested by police after throwing bleach into the faces of several high school students outside an uptown New Orleans convenience store. The incident occurred after the woman accused the teens of skipping her in line and they exchanged words. Video surveillance showed the students standing outside the store waiting for the woman to exit the store. When she did, she had a bottle of bleach inner hand poured some of it into the faces of the teens before a brawl ensued. The woman is later shown trying to drive away but being stopped by the teens, including one who jumps onto the hood of the woman’s car. The teen is removed by an unknown male, who was later identified as the woman’s son. When the teenage girl jumps onto the car again, the man throws her onto the pavement. The teen Although the rest of the video was not aired, it was later disclosed that the teen has a broken arm an arrest warrant has been issued for the woman’s son.
Earlier this year, it was reported that the city had a murder total of 150 in 2015, representing a 43-year low. However, it was also reported that New Orleans had about 47 murders committed through the first three months of 2015 and is on pace to reach at least 184 murders before the year ends.
Two of the city’s top crime experts, Dr. John Penny and Dr. Peter Scharf, said in February that the city’s murder rate in 2015 had already shown signs of rising and would only be fueled to rise even faster with warmer temperatures through the spring and summer.
To complicate matters further, murder was the only crime category that did not see an increase in 2014. Violent crime rose in New Orleans last year and numbers rose in six of the seven remaining crime categories by double digits.
In the wake of Wednesday’s memorial for crime victims, police began investigating a 7th Ward fatal shooting in the 1900 block of Abundance Street that claimed the life of 33-year-old Dennis Floyd.
Police responded to a call of shots fired around 11:00 p.m. Wednesday, WWL News reported. When they arrived, police say they found the victim suffering multiple gunshot wounds on the floor of kitchen’s dining area in his residence.
Dennis Floyd was pronounced dead on the scene, according to police.
Police have not identified a suspect or motive.
Police are still searching for the gunman who wounded a two-year-old Monday who was playing outside her grandmother’s Faubourg Tremé in the 11 block of Gov. Nicholls Street.
FOX 8 News reported that everybody in the neighborhood seemed to be talking about the shooting the next day.
“I think it’s a shame that children can’t play outside and enjoy life,” Kandy Espadron, who lives across the street from the shooting, told FOX 8.
“That could have been your child,” neighbor Sassey Joseph said. “Somebody needs to say something.”
Police believe the gunman came from around the corner on St. Claude Avenue, hid behind a tree on Gov. Nicholls, and then started firing into a group of four children playing near one adult Monday just before 8:30 p.m.
“Several kids were playing in the front yard, and an unknown African-American male approached and fired several shots and struck her in the left leg,” NOPD Commander Otha Sandifer told FOX 8.
The shooting happened a half-block from the French Quarter, and while police have some surveillance video, they say it’s not enough to identify a suspect.
“That’s why we need someone to come forward. We know somebody knows who this individual is,” Sandifer said.
Police are still trying to determine who the gunman was targeting.
“There was one adult male in the group, and it’s yet to be determined if he was the target. That’s still under investigation,” Sandifer said.
The little girl is expected to be okay. On Tuesday she was in stable condition and recovering at Children’s Hospital.
“She’s in good condition. Thank God for that,” Sandifer said.
“Oh my God, I’m so glad,” Joseph said. “It’s sad that it had to happen like that, but I’m so glad and thankful that the baby is still here, and the mama doesn’t have to bury that child.”
Residents were understandably angry.
“My children have to stay inside. They shoot in the morning, evening and night. It’s not safe anymore,” Joseph said.
“Tourist section is right around here, and they have to watch for themselves. They come to enjoy it,” Espadron said.
Police and residents hope someone comes forward to help them solve this crime. Despite four cameras and several witnesses, police don’t have a motive or a good description of the gunman.
In other crime-related news, the French Quarter was rocked by yet another brazen violent crime, this time a stabbing that took place near the intersection of Bourbon and St. Peter streets about 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
The stabbing occurred despite the use of off duty officers to patrol Bourbon Street, bolstered support from Louisiana State Police and the creation of an app designed to improve public safety in the French Quarter.
Adding an exclamation point to another bloody week in New Orleans was a pair of double shootings that left two people dead and wounded two others in the early-morning hours Friday.
WWL reported that a man and a woman were shot and killed in what police believe may have been a home invasion in the 13000 block of Granville Street in New Orleans East around 3 a.m.
Police were still on the scene as of 6 a.m. The couple was found shot to death inside of a home.
About one hour earlier, a man and woman were found shot near the intersection of Daneel and Josephine streets in Central City. Both victims were taken to the hospital. There was no immediate word on their conditions.
Anyone with information about any of these cases is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
“This is just more proof that things are not going to get better until the city begins to address everyone’s needs,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly. You can’t decide to protect only certain parts of the city or take away some residents’ chance at getting a decent education and a good job and expect there not to be any repercussions.
“Violence is always tragic — no one likes to read about stabbings or shootings,” Brown added. “But violence is also the language of the oppressed and struggling daily to survive in this city has reduced some of the people of this city to desperate souls willing to do whatever is necessary to be seen and heard. With the city and the business community locking a segment of the population out of an opportunity to live a decent life, they are willing to do whatever is necessary to eat and survive another day.”
To illustrate his point, Brown pointed to the case of a man who pulled a gun on patrons in a restaurant after attempting to take their food.
“It is literally dog-eat-dog on the streets of New Orleans,” Brown said. “We need better schools, better-paying jobs and a police department that upholds the U.S. Constitution and not the agenda of the white business community.”
During a story on FOX 8 News last week about the shooting of the two-year-old in Tremé, an unidentified woman urged the City of New Orleans to place crime surveillance cameras everywhere in order to arrest “these men” responsible for taking the lives of innocent children and others.
“While I understand and respect the sister’s feelings, I would also like to say that even some of thee toughest law enforcement officials know what we can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly. “We need better schools, better-paying jobs and a city administration and police department that respects and protects Black people’s constitutional rights.
“Police departments and elected officials use Black people’s grief and desperation about Black-on-Black homicides to justify racial profiling, excessive force and other forms of unconstitutional policing,” Aha continued. “That only causes more of us to distrust the police and refuse to come forward with information that might help solve some of these murders.
“It’s a vicious cycle that must be broken.”
This article originally published in the April 27, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
