Gun violence explodes in New Orleans in 2017
23rd January 2017 · 0 Comments
Although NOPD officials and the City of New Orleans are not saying much publicly about it, the city is in the midst of a budding crisis as gun violence has reached an unprecedented level over the first few weeks of 2017.
After a rise in homicides in 2016 that left many concerned about the future, the new year has gotten off to a violent start with 47 incidents of gun violence over the first 18 days of 2017. Nine of those shootings have been fatal.
WWL News reported last week that over the first 18 days of the year, someone has been shot about every nine hours.
WWL crime analyst Jeff Asher said last week that New Orleans has had 21 more shootings and three more murders over the first 17 days of the year compared to the same period last year. The total of gun shootings through Jan. 17 of this year is also reportedly 17 more shootings than the average number of shootings reported over the same period the past three years.
The victims are overwhelmingly male – 42 of the 46 people shot (91 percent) were male, WWL reported.
While the average of the victims is 27, several shooting victims have been particularly young.
On Jan. 14, a five-month-old girl was shot in Algiers. The infant suffered gunshot wounds to the foot and thigh in the 2200 block of Westbend Parkway. According to the NOPD, the child and her parents were inside of a car when several men walked up to the car opened fire. The men continue to fire at the car as the family tried to flee, which is when the girl was hit by gunfire.
An 11-year-old boy was one of three people shot in separate shooting incidents in less than two hours in eastern New Orleans Tuesday night—all three shootings occurred a short distance from each other.
Despite the increased number of shootings, geographically, the shootings are primarily concentrated to a few areas—areas not often traveled by tourists and in less wealthier parts of the city, which may account for the little publicity the increased gun violence has received.
Of the 46 people shot, 26 (56 percent) of them were shot in either the 5th or 7th districts. And the shootings are even further concentrated to certain sections of the two districts.
In a 1.45 sq. mi. part of St. Roch, the 7th Ward and along Florida Avenue, 15 people have been shot in the first 18 days of 2017 – two people died in the shootings. Six of the shooting incidents involved multiple victims — five double shootings and one triple shooting.
In eastern New Orleans, there has been a similar concentration of shootings. In a 1.65 sq. mi. section of New Orleans East, between Downman Road and Crowder Boulevard and Chef Menteur Highway and Morrison Road, 10 people have been shot within those boundaries. Two of the shootings have been fatal.
A two-block section of New Orleans East — Warfield Street in between Dale and Reynes street — has seen a particularly gruesome beginning to 2017, as four people were shot, two killed, in four separate incidents.
Two people were shot on Jan. 2, 18 hours apart, in the 4300 block of Reynes at 1 a.m. and at the intersection of Warfield and Dale streets at 7:15 p.m.
On Jan. 7, Louis Monroe, a 52-year-old man, was shot and killed on Warfield. On Jan. 9, Wilbert Thomas, a 37-year-old man, was shot and killed at Reynes and Warfield streets.
A number of residents and leaders have said that city officials should focus more on the human toll violence is taking in New Orleans and practical solutions that address the root of the problem and less on the political ramifications or any agenda.
“We need to take a holistic approach to reducing gun violence and fighting crime, one that includes expanding educational and economic opportunities for those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, increasing access to mental health care and giving New Orleans families what they need to carve out a better life for themselves,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly Thursday. “You can’t fight crime and violence without also fighting poverty, oppression, inequity and injustice.”
This article originally published in the January 23, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
