Mass shooting Mother's Day parade (19 wounded)

Almost two dozen people including two 10-year-old children have been injured after as many as three gunmen opened fire at a 'second line' of a parade on Mother’s Day in New Orleans. Three people remain in critical condition following the shootout.

Over 300 people were participating in the residential festival, on Frenchmen Street, in the east of the city, when several shots were fired. The incident occurred around 2pm local time (19:00 GMT) on Sunday.

"We have mothers, sisters, little children who were shot," New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu told local press.

Nine people were immediately taken to University Hospital by emergency responders, eight of whom were suffering from gunshot wounds, according to local channel WWLTV. One more being treated was injured in an attempt to escape from the shooting.

A New Orleans doctor confirmed to reporters that he has had to treat 'severe injuries' including wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Further victims were taken to different hospitals in the region.

The majority of the injuries are not considered life-threatening, and no fatalities have been confirmed, but three are reportedly in a critical condition.

http://rt.com/usa/new-orleans-parade-shooting-179/

19 wounded in New Orleans Mother's Day Parade


NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Video released early Monday by New Orleans police shows a possible suspect in the Mother's Day gunfire that wounded 19 people during a neighborhood parade.

The grainy surveillance video shows a crowd suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man who turns and runs out of the picture. The person is wearing a white T-shirt and dark pants. The image isn't clear but police say they hope someone will recognize him and notify investigators.

Police believe more than one gun was fired in the burst of Sunday afternoon violence — the latest to flare up around a celebration this year — and they have vowed to swiftly track down those responsible. Detectives were conducting interviews, collecting any surveillance video they could find and gathering evidence from the scene. Cell phone video taken in the aftermath of the shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and others bending over to comfort them.


Bystanders comfort a shooting victim.
(Lauren McGaughy/The Times-Picayune/AP)
Police also say the reward for information leading to arrests and indictments in the case is $10,000.
At least three of the victims were seriously wounded. Of the rest, many were grazed and authorities said that, overall, most wounds were not life threatening. No deaths were reported.

The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy and a girl. The children, both 10 years old, were grazed and in good condition.

It's not the first time gunfire has shattered a festive mood in the city this year. Five people were wounded in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras.

"The specialness of the day doesn't appear to interrupt the relentless drumbeat of violence," Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at a news conference outside a hospital where victims were being treated Sunday night.

Mary Beth Romig, a spokeswoman for the FBI in New Orleans, said federal investigators have no indication the shooting was an act of terrorism.


Officers investigate the scene of the shooting.
(Michael DeMocker/The Times-Picayune/AP)
"It's strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans," she said.
As many as 400 people came out for the second-line procession — a boisterous New Orleans tradition — though only half that many were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said. Officers were interspersed with the marchers, which is routine for such events.

Police saw three suspects running from the scene. No arrests had been made as of late Sunday.

Outside the hospital Sunday night, Leonard Temple became teary as he talked about a friend who was in surgery after being shot three times during the parade. Temple was told the man was hit while trying to push his own daughter out of the way.

"People were just hanging out. We were just chilling. And this happened. Bad things always happen to good people," said Temple, who was at the parade but didn't see the shootings.

Second-line parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street, often following behind a brass band. They can be planned events or impromptu offshoots of other celebrations. They trace their origins to the city's famous jazz funerals.

A social club called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday's event. The group was founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its MySpace page.

The neighborhood where the shooting happened is a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses, some boarded up. As of last year, the 7th Ward's population was about 60 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.


Evidence is collected at the scene of the shooting.
(Doug Parker/AP)
The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series "Treme."
Sunday's violence comes at a time when the city is struggling to pay for tens of millions of dollars required under federal consent decrees to reform the police department and the city jail.

Shootings at parades and neighborhood celebrations have become more common in recent years as the city has struggled with street crime, sometimes gang-related.

In January, police said a feud resulted in the drive-by shooting that wounded five people about 30 minutes after a parade had passed by on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The next month, four people were shot following an argument in the French Quarter during the last weekend of partying before Mardi Gras. Arrests were made in both cases.

Police vowed to solve Sunday's shooting, too. Serpas said it wasn't clear if particular people in the second line were targeted, or if the shots were fired at random.

"We'll get them. We have good resources in this neighborhood," Serpas said.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans and AP Radio reporter Jackie Quinn in Washington

Washington Post Blames Gangland Shooting on Second Amendment

Gun control advocates hijack incident in America’s crime capital to demonize law-abiding gun owners
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 13, 2013
Despite the fact that the FBI described the shooting at a New Orleans Mother’s Day parade as “a flare-up of street violence” and not a targeted attack, the Washington Post cited the incident as another reason to push through draconian gun control measures.

19 people were injured yesterday as the parade passed through the 7th Ward neighborhood near the French Quarter in New Orleans. Suspects were witnessed running from the scene after they fired the shots but no one has been apprehended.

In addition to the FBI describing the incident as “a flare-up of street violence,” CNN reported that, “One of the suspects was described as an African-American male, approximately 18 to 22 years old, wearing a white T-shirt and blue jean shorts.”

New Orleans is plagued by gang violence and has been referred to as “the deadliest city in America”. In 2010, the city’s homicide rate was 10 times the national average.
Shootings during parades in poorer areas of New Orleans such as the one embroiled in the incident yesterday have become commonplace. Earlier this year, four people were shot after an argument during the last weekend of partying before Mardi Gras.

Despite the fact that the Mother’s Day parade shooting was almost certainly gang-related and probably carried out by drug dealers, in addition to taking place in one of America’s crime capitals, the Washington Post cited the incident as another reason for increasing gun control measures against law-abiding Americans across the country.

In a diatribe calling for increased background checks, opinion writer E.J. Dionne Jr. remarked, “As of May 8, according to Slate magazine, there had been at least 3,947 gun deaths since Newtown. Sunday saw yet another mass shooting, at a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans.”

Perennial gun control advocate Piers Morgan, who proudly displays a picture of himself with gun criminal Snoop Dogg, also eagerly tweeted news about the shootings as soon as it broke.
Numerous people also took to Twitter to demand Americans be disarmed and only criminals such as the ones most likely involved in yesterday’s shooting be able to have access to guns.
“Praying for new orleans until the next shooting won’t really help anything. We need gun control. Now,” remarked one user.

Enough is enough: 19 New Orleans shooting victims included 2 kids – #GunControl #Now,” added another.
Quite how making it harder for Billy Bob in North Dakota to purchase a rifle at a gun show will prevent criminal gangs in New Orleans from obtaining firearms is not explained by the Washington Post, Piers Morgan, or any other of the gun control advocates who have once again hijacked an unrelated incident to hype their political agenda.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

Wow... just wow. Fucking ridiculous.