Crime: Blog of New Orleans, Gambit

The Frenchmen Street blood drive for victims of Mother's Day shooting

Kevin Allman — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:49:00 -0500

Two enormous bloodmobiles — one in neon chartreuse, the other, well, blood-red — stretched down Frenchmen Street from the Apple Barrel to the Spotted Cat this afternoon. The event was called “Frenchmen Street: Roll Up Your Sleeves,” and it was a replacement blood drive for the 19 victims of the Mother’s Day second line shooting in the 7th Ward.…

NOPD asks: Have you seen this pig statue?

Alex Woodward — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:53:00 -0500

The ~~man~~pighunt begins:

The New Orleans Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in locating a stolen statue of a pig in a chef’s outfit. The statue was stolen on the morning of May 1, 2013 during Jazz Fest weekend.

Possible scenario: Swept up in the reverie of a musical weekend, the thieves stumbled upon their new pig friend and invited it to their Hawaiian shirt and straw fedora Bacchanalia.…

Gambit TV: Giving back after tragedy, and The 19 Fund

Gambit TV — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:39:00 -0500

In his commentary tonight on WWL-TV, Gambit political editor Clancy DuBos discussed the New Orleans Mother's Day shootings and Thursday night's benefit for "The 19 Fund," which will benefit the victims. Donald Harrison, Jr. and The Congo Square Nation, Hot 8 Brass Band, Bonerama, Stooges Brass Band and others will perform.…

NOPD makes another Mother's Day shooting arrest

Alex Woodward — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:13:18 -0500

New Orleans Police Department officers arrested another suspect related to the Mother's Day second line shootings. This afternoon, Monique Pepe, 19, was charged with being an accessory to attempted second degree murder for allegedly hiding 24-year-old Shawn Scott, who was arrested along with his 19-year-old brother Akein Scott.…

Benefit for Mother's Day shooting victims May 23 at Tip’s

Clancy DuBos — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:27:00 -0500

Gambit’s Foundation for Entertainment Development and Education, Tipitina’s Foundation, United Way of Southeast Louisiana and Silence Is Violence have joined forces to host a special benefit concert for the 19 victims of the May 12 shooting. The concert will be next Thursday (May 23) at Tipitina’s, 501 Napoleon Ave., and will feature local brass bands, Mardi Gras Indians, and other musicians and entertainers.…

Akein Scott's brother and 4 others in custody for Mother's Day shootings

Alex Woodward — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:30:00 -0500

Returning to the intersection of Frenchmen and North Villere streets, city officials and law enforcement announced the capture of second line shooting suspect Akein Scott as well as his brother, 24-year-old Shawn Scott, and four others.

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Ronal Serpas confirmed Shawn Scott as the second shooting suspect.…

Akein Scott in custody

Alex Woodward — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:15:00 -0500

Akein Scott, the 19-year-old suspect in the Mother's Day second line shootings, was arrested from a home in the Little Woods neighborhood in eastern New Orleans late last night. He appeared in Orleans Parish Magistrate Court this morning with bail set at $500,000 for each charge — Scott was booked with 20 counts of attempted second degree murder.…

Original Big 7 will "re-do" Mother's Day second line

Alex Woodward — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:02:00 -0500

Original Big 7 Social Aid & Pleasure Club organizers announced it will "re-do" its second line parade, interrupted by the shooting at its Mother's Day procession, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 1. It will follow the same route.…

The Mother's Day shootings: What constitutes an act of terror?

Kevin Allman — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:00:41 -0500

On Sunday, hours after the Mother’s Day shooting in the Seventh Ward, FBI New Orleans spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig told the Associated Press the gunfire that injured 19 people was, as far as federal investigators knew, not an act of terrorism. “It’s strictly an act of street violence,” Romig said.…

Mother's Day shooting suspect had prior arrests

Alex Woodward — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:50:31 -0500

A few hours following a community rally at the site of the Mother's Day second line shooting, New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officials named Akein Scott, 19, as the suspect, seen in the surveillance footage.

This is not Scott's first brush with the law.…

Police name suspect in Mother's Day shootings

Kandace Graves — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:38:00 -0500

Police are searching today for 19-year-old Akein Scott as a suspect in the shootings of 19 people at a Mother’s Day second-line parade in the 7th Ward.

At a news conference Monday night Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas called on Scott “to do the right thing” and surrender.…

Photos: Community rally gathers at site of second line shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:33:26 -0500

As sun set at the intersection of Frenchmen and North Villere streets, 200 people gathered at the site of yesterday's Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club's annual Mother's Day second line, which ended prematurely as 19 people were injured in a shooting. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, members of New Orleans City Council, community leaders and others spoke into a microphone at the center of the intersection.…

A visual representation of the Mother's Day second line shootings

Alejandro de los Rios — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:58:00 -0500

As noted several times here and through other media, Gambit contributor Deborah "Big Red" Cotton was one of the 19 people shot at yesterday's Mother's Day second line put on by the Original Big 7 Social Aid & Pleasure Club.…

Officials update Mother's Day second line shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:30:29 -0500

New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and federal authorities gathered outside NOPD headquarters this afternoon to provide updates following the shooting at a second line yesterday that injured 19 people, three critically.

NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas said most of the wounds were "superficial, glancing wounds," though those that remain in critical condition faced "direct gunshot wounds."

"We have no ability to give you the condition of persons who went through surgery today, but we know they’re still receiving medical attention," Serpas said.

Investigators are still trying to determine whether there was more than one gunman at the scene, and if there was more than one weapon.…

3 people remain in critical condition following Mother's Day shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:18:01 -0500

Three patients at LSU Interim Public Hospital remain in critical condition following yesterday's shooting at a second line, according to hospital spokesperson Marvin McGraw. One patient is listed in stable condition.…

Y@ Speak: Happy birthday, New Orleans

Lauren LaBorde — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:55:00 -0500

New Orleans and @sissynobby share the same birthday. Coincidence?…
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Video: Mother's Day second line shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:18:00 -0500

The New Orleans Police Department released video from yesterday afternoon's shooting at a Mother's Day second line in the 7th Ward. The video surveillance footage below shows frames of the event that injured 19 people, including Gambit correspondent Deborah Cotton.…

NOPD consent decree selection postponed

Alex Woodward — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:40:06 -0500

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Susie Morgan was scheduled to select one of the two final firms that would monitor the New Orleans Police Department and implement reforms as ordered under the federal consent decree. That decision has been postponed another two weeks until May 14.…

Y@ Speak: April fools

Lauren LaBorde — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:19:00 -0500

Next up for OPP: Charter prisons? Recovery Prison District?
— Karl from Lafayette (@karlschott) April 3, 2013

It's April, and everyone is actin' a damn fool — particularly OPP inmates, on tape.…

Yelp reviews of Orleans Parish Prison

Kevin Allman — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:29:00 -0500

Oh, Yelp. Is there nothing you don't review?

Details under the jump!

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Landrieu: Sheriff "is not keeping the prison secure and our city safe"

Alex Woodward — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:15:00 -0500

In a statement that followed Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman's afternoon presser — and a stab at Mayor Mitch Landrieu — after hours of testimony over the Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) consent decree, Landrieu issued the following statement to the media:

It gets clearer every day that the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office is not keeping the prison secure and our city safe. This week, expert after expert talked about mismanagement and said this was one of the worst run jails in the country.…
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Gusman slams Landrieu on consent decree talks

Alex Woodward — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 17:40:00 -0500

After a six-hour round of testimony in federal court over the Orleans Parish Parish consent decree, Sheriff Marlin Gusman held a brief press conference outside OPP's intake center in the shadow (and noise) of new facility construction. As he did last week following Mayor Mitch Landrieu's emergency City Council meeting on the OPP consent decree, Gusman slammed the mayor and defended the internal reforms at the sheriff's office — and addressed the content of a damning video of inmates at the now-closed House of Detention, which closed last year.…

Landrieu: jail consent decree could mean layoffs and sweeping cuts

Alex Woodward — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:00:00 -0500

Yesterday, Mayor Mitch Landrieu called for a special New Orleans City Council meeting to discuss the proposed federal consent decree for Orleans Parish Prison — namely how the millions of dollars to pay for it would cripple the city’s budget.

Today, Landrieu said a consent decree with Sheriff Marlin Gusman and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — on top of the consent agreement to reform NOPD — “cannot be paid for in this fiscal year without raising taxes or substantially gutting city services.”

“During this fiscal year, the sheriff, DOJ, federal judges are all riding up to tell us and the taxpayers of the city to write a blank check and hand it over,” Landrieu said.…

Council committee meets on alleged racial profiling by NOPD

Charles Maldonado — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:32:40 -0500

New Orleans Independent Police Monitor (IPM) Susan Hutson and Inspector General (IG) today presented to the New Orleans City Council's Criminal Justice Committee the results of two highly critical reports on the New Orleans Police Department's stop and frisk programs. The IG report, which examined 10,000 field interview cards generated over two months in 2011, concluded that because of sloppy and incomplete data-gathering on officer field interview cards, the office was unable to determine whether racial profiling was taking place during so-called "Terry stops," where officers briefly stop, detain and possibly search subjects.…

The Governor's Wife pushed back ... again

Lauren LaBorde — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:13:07 -0600

Will we ever get to see the The Governor's Wife? After news that the premiere of the A&E reality series following former La. governor Edwin Edwards and his 34-year-old wife Trina had been pushed from Feb. 27 to March 13, today the network announced the show won't air until sometime this summer.…