Murders up 41 percent in N.O., outpacing Chicago, other cities
10th July 2017 · 0 Comments
With tens of thousands in town for the Essence Music Festival and many families gathering for picnics and family reunions, the 4th of July holiday weekend was one of the bloodiest of the year.
Violent crime did not take the weekend off, according to police reports.
Three people were injured on the Interstate on July 2, including a seven-year-old child. Those shootings on the I-10 raised the number of people shot on the Interstate to eight since the beginning of the year.
A day earlier, a mother in eastern New Orleans watched helplessly as a carjacker drove off with one of her two children still in her car. She managed to remove her infant from the car but was forced to wonder what would become of her two-year-old son who was strapped in then back seat of the car as the carjacker sped off until a stranger returned the toddler who had been dropped off around the corner.
“I just fell on the ground crying. I was holding my baby,” the mother told FOX 8 News.
LSU criminologist Dr. Peter Scharf points to other recent crimes in the city that he says are particularly concerning.
“The quality of some of these violent crimes I think are really disturbing. The triple murder in the venue on Tulane Avenue, you have the assault on the Unitarian participants in the Quarter. You know, we’ve become an open-air shooting gallery, I mean that’s just the reality,” Scharf told FOX 8.
Despite a new $40 million crime initiative unveiled by the Landrieu administration earlier this year and a renewed effort to combat violent crime in the city, there appears to be no end to the escalating gun violence and sharply rising homicide rate.
Scharf says murders are up by 41 percent in New Orleans from last year. He adds that per capita, New Orleans has had more killings than Chicago.
“There were almost 100 murders in 2017. If right now, nobody killed anybody for the rest of the year, we’d still be in the top 15 in the United State,” said Scharf.
Scharf told FOX 8 that some of the critical areas he New Orleans leaders must tackle are improving crime clearance rates and addressing the NOPD’s manpower shortage.
“Most cities in the United States have reduced their murder totals. Murder totals have gone down by 30 percent since the mid-90s all over the United States, and they’re up in a few cities. Now what is it that these other cities are doing that we’re not doing?” asked Scharf.
FOX 8 News reported that the NOPD is encouraging the public to come forward with any information that may help solve cases.
As for the I-10 shootings, police say they don’t believe the July 2 incident is related to any others that have taken place on the interstate. The NOPD adds the shootings appear to be crimes of opportunity between individuals who are acquaintances. We’re told law enforcement is patrolling the area regularly.
The NOPD continues to grapple with other violent crimes across the city, including the recent robbery of Neyow’s Creole Café on July 2 and yet another violent robbery in the French Quarter, which comes less than two weeks after four suspects were nabbed in a French Quarter robbery that left one visitor to the city fighting for his life.
New Orleans police are asking for the public’s help finding and identifying an individual believed to be responsible for a Wednesday robbery in the French Quarter.
Just before 6 p.m., police responded to a call reporting a simple robbery near the intersection of Governor Nicholls and Chartres streets.
When they arrived, and after further investigation, the officers found a man sitting on the sidewalk on Chartres Street with blood on his head, clothes and on the nearby sidewalk.
The man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment of the cuts on his head.
Around 5:40 p.m., the victim told police he was walking eastbound on Chartres Street when an unknown individual approached and hit him with his fist in the back of the head, causing the victim to fall to the ground and strike his head against a brick wall.
The suspect then searched the victim’s pockets and found the victim’s wallet.
The suspect then saw a witness and dropped the wallet before fleeing the scene on foot, heading south on Governor Nicholls and onto Decatur streets.
The suspect in this incident is described as a Black male with a thin build and unshaven face, standing about five feet 10 inches tall, weighing about 165 pounds.
The suspect was last seen wearing a dark blue T-shirt, blue jeans and blue sneakers.
Anyone with information regarding this incident or the suspect is asked to contact Eighth District detectives at (504) 658-6080.
The July 4th weekend might have been even more violent if the NOPD’s 8th District had not confiscated 16 guns and two pellet guns from individuals.
Since Friday, June 30, offices arrested 16 people in multiple areas of the 8th District. Most illegal gun arrests were made in the 400 to 600 block of Bourbon Street. Others were arrested on Canal Street, Exchange Place and Dauphine Street.
NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison spoke about the successful weekend during a press conference announcing pay increases and other changes within the department.
“I want to thank the men and women of NOPD for their outstanding efforts in keeping the city safe during this year’s Essence Festival and 4th of July weekend,” Harrison said. “All officers were engaged and they were very proactive. Because of our efforts, we had no Essence Fest-related incidents and no 4th of July-related incidents.”
This article originally published in the July 10, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
