An impromptu music video shoot at a New Orleans park that was packed with hundreds of people was cut short when gunfire rang out, injuring at least 16 people, officials said.
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A horrific mass shooting occurred in New Orleans on Sunday in the Upper Ninth Ward.
The shooting is being investigated.
Speaking of the hospital, Jordan said: “It’s still crowded back there”.
Not much is known about the victims, but at least two were 14-year-old girls. Witnesses also said that two gunmen fired into the crowd.
The shooting’s aftermath was “chaotic”, The Times-Picayune reported, with several people lying around the park’s main building and hats and possessions scattered around the playground. The victims’ ages range from 10 to 37 years old.
“Detectives are still working to determine the extent of all of the victims’ injuries”, the department said in a statement.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who joined Harrison at the briefing, called the violence “infuriating”, adding, “It’s just insane to put the lives of this many innocent people at risk”.
Police spokesman Tyler Gamble said Sunday that neither the block party nor the music video crew had a permit to use the playground named after Henry “Bunny” Friend, who was 18 when he died in 1924.
“No one feels safe”, said Peter Scharf, a Louisiana State University professor who studies crime. Harrison questioned how two groups of people could open fire on each other – with what appears to be automatic weapons, judging from the shell casings – with hundreds of people in between them. The murder rate, which had been dropping since 2011, fell to its lowest level a year ago since 1971. Landrieu said the shooting is not something that can be tolerated in the city.
Landrieu has been criticized for allowing the police force to fall below 1,200 officers when officials say it should be around 1,600.
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“This is a classic case where we need citizen help”, Harrison said at the press conference.
