Mayor Mitch Landrieu said that he, too, has been the victim of an armed robbery, and remembers it “like it was yesterday” and knows the sense of fear it can create. Landrieu said statistics show that overall violent crime is down in New Orleans over the past 20 years.
Advertisement
According to the restaurant manager, at around 9:45 p.m., two unknown black males approached the restaurant wearing Velcro masks and dark hooded sweatshirts.
Darlene Cusanza of the local Crimestoppers organization said the reward for information leading to solutions in the robberies totals $30,000.
The three armed robbers have not been arrested yet. “They seemed to be in a hurry, so they left out after that”, Vodanovich said. Her business is directly across the street from Monkey Hill Bar, where three men with gloves and guns came inside and robbed the business. Two similar earlier robberies were at popular neighborhood restaurants.
Advertisement
City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, who represents the area of Uptown that includes Patois and Monkey Hill, said that the NOPD Second District armed-robbery detectives have a solve rate of more than twice the national average, and that they are “up to the task” of identifying the gunmen in these cases as well. That’s the result, he has said, of hard choices made after he inherited an $80 million budget deficit in 2010. They robbed patrons, emptied the register and took cash from an upstairs office before fleeing into the night. Council member Susan Guidry said Tuesday the city now has funds to hire new officers, but added that training new officers takes time. “We recognize the similarities, but there is no evidence to say all three are related”, Harrison said. “But it is not something we can not handle”. While a few Uptown restaurants are beefing up security measures, many can not afford to. “We now get to make ours”. The mayor said he understands people are scared.
