On Mardi Gras Day, 2009, Louis Lazone (L), 18, and Mark Brooks (R), 19, are escorted to central lock-up after being arrested on seven counts of attempted first degree murder following the shooting on St. Charles Avenue at Second Street which injured seven people, including a 20-month-old child.
Seven people, including a toddler, were injured in a Mardi Gras afternoon shooting along the St. Charles Avenue parade route, as truck floats passed just yards away.
The shootings happened about 1:40 p.m. near the intersection of St. Charles with Second Street, on the opposite side of the neutral ground as the passing floats. Two alleged shooters were quickly apprehended by New Orleans Police Department officers who had been stationed along the route and were able to chase them on foot.
Police had no motive for why the shooting broke out in broad daylight as revelers crowded the streets. Not long after the shooting, Deputy Chief Kirk Bouyelas said it appeared that the victims were all bystanders.
"The important thing to note is that the officers were here at the scene and quick to respond," Bouyelas said.
| Police Chief Warren Riley Comment on Parade Shooting |
Of the seven victims, two were listed in serious condition late Tuesday. They are both men around 20 who were shot in the abdomen, according to Jeb Tate with New Orleans EMS.
The five others suffered less serious wounds, according to police and EMS. They include a 20-month-old boy with a graze wound to the back; a 17-year-old girl shot in the thigh; a 50-year-old woman shot in the elbow; a 15-year-old boy with a graze wound to his back and a 30-year-old man with a graze wound to the thigh.
Several people near the scene reported hearing the "pop, pop, pop" of multiple gunshots. Agnes White said she hid behind the trunk of a large tree at the corner as police officers ran by on the sidewalk.
Dr. Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon, was with his two children on ladders catching beads from passing truck floats when he heard the shots. He turned around, saw a man lying in the middle of the street and ran to provide assistance. The man had been shot in the abdomen.
"He kept asking me, 'Was I shot? Was I shot?'$?" Parry said.
Eventually the paramedics arrived and took over for the Air Force reservist, who will be deployed to Afghanistan this summer.
"Damn, this is more dangerous than Afghanistan," he said.
Uptown resident Beau Beals, 45, was outside a house party on St. Charles Avenue just a block away from the shooting.
Beals, who was standing in front of an iron fence with other parade goers, said he saw a group of young men in front of the Hedgewood Surgical Center at 2427 St. Charles, facing the crowd on the neutral ground. That's when he heard about nine pops and saw smoke. Moments later, he noticed a man lying in the street.
Upon hearing all the commotion, NOPD officer Sabrina Richardson, who had been hired to provide security at the party Beals was attending, pushed some of the people inside of the house and bolted outdoors to the scene, he said. Beals and other party attendees tossed children over a metal fence to get them to safety.
Not long after the shooting, people went back to focusing on the parade, he said.
"There was an ambulance that was picking up a guy off the street and people didn't even stop vying for throws," Beals said.
By early Tuesday evening, police booked the two suspects, who were apprehended at Carondelet and Second streets. Bouyelas said three guns were taken from the two men, identified as 20-year-old Mark Brooks and 18-year-old Louis Lazone. Each was booked with seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Police look for shell casings next to a car where a man was shot multiple times around 8 p.m. at a gas station on Canal Street at North Galvez.
Later in the evening, police reported three other shootings: a man shot in the hip in the 900 block of North Tonti Street, a woman shot in the side in the 2600 block of Josephine Street and a man shot multiple times inside of a vehicle at Canal and North Galvez streets.
Richardson, a public information officer, said the victims from Tonti and Josephine streets were both taken to the hospital and their wounds were classified as non-fatal. She could not provide the condition of the third victim.