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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — One person is dead and nine others wounded after a Bourbon Street shooting early Sunday (Nov. 27), New Orleans police said. The gunfire started shortly before 1:30 a.m. Central in the 100 block of Bourbon, between Canal and Iberville streets. Here’s what we know so far about the mass shooting:
1 dead at hospital
Bullets struck eight men and two women. All but one victim were taken by New Orleans Emergency Medical Services and Acadian Ambulance to hospitals for treatment; the exception was taken to a hospital in a private vehicle. One of the male victims was pronounced dead at a hospital, Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said.
The victims range in age from 20 to 37 years old. The severity of the survivor’s injuries was not immediately known.
A woman who works in the 100 block of Bourbon and asked to remain anonymous for her safety said she saw four or five gunshot victims, including one man who looked to have been shot on the upper right side of his chest. The man was walking toward an ambulance and talking on his phone, she said.
She saw another man who had blood dripping from his fingertips as he walked from the scene. A third victim was strapped to a stretcher and wearing a neck brace.
No motive yet
Harrison said detectives were still piecing together the events leading up to the shooting, including interviewing witnesses and checking for surveillance recordings.
1 victim was armed
Two men were arrested at the scene on gun possession charges, including one man who was wounded in the shooting. The second arrested man “perhaps may or may not be affiliated with this event,” Harrison said.
Bayou Classic coverage
Harrison said 30 or more officers were in the immediate area as part of the Police Department’s coverage plan for the annual Bayou Classic football game.
“Our officers were right there who heard those shots, responded to those shots, ran right toward it,” Harrison said.
‘It was panic’
Witnesses described chaos in the moments following the shooting, as the throngs of revelers – their numbers swelled by the annual Bayou Classic football weekend – scattered for safety.
“It was panic,” said Glean Williams, 24, who was selling hats and other items at a table on Canal Street near Bourbon. “Everybody started running. People getting run over, stepped on, knocked over.”
People ran into doorways and hotels, or hid behind Christmas-lighted palm trees along Canal Street, Williams said.
‘Totally unacceptable’
Mayor Mitch Landrieu praised the work of first responders and called the shooting “totally unacceptable.”
“The violence just continues to spin out of control with people brandishing weapons whenever they think they can,” Landrieu said.
Déjà vu
The casualties in Sunday’s shooting match the total from 2 1/2 years ago when 21-year-old nursing student Brittany Thomas was killed and nine others were wounded during a June 29, 2014, shootout in the 700 block of Bourbon.
Authorities later arrested 22-year-old Trung Le, of Belle Chasse. He was sentenced in April of this year to 60 years in prison. The second suspected shooter remains unidentified.
“This is terrible news,” Amy Matthews, the Australian tourist who was wounded in the 2014 shooting, said upon learning of Sunday morning’s incident. “This will keep happening, and it is horrible that people will have to experience what I experienced and still struggle with.”
Staff writers Emily Lane and Ken Daley contributed to this report
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