NEW ORLEANS(WGNO)–As if an intentional slap in the face, less than 9 hours after Mayor Landrieu proclaimed the police department’s quest to capture and punish the criminals responsible for a slew of armed robberies in the Uptown area, three gunman attacked Monkey Hill on Magazine street at 10:21 PM last night.
At this morning’s 11 AM press conference Mayor Landrieu sympathized, “having been a victim of an armed robbery I can tell you that it is a horrible thing to have to go through so for all of the victims that have had to suffer that in the last couple of weeks I can feel your pain”.
The suspects made off with cash, valuables, and the trust of New Orleans residents in our cities ability to put an end to these crimes.
“I called the us attorney this morning and asked for their involvement, as you know we’ve now had three instances, that appear to be part, at least to me, of a conspiracy” said Mayor Landrieu, and the U.S Attorney Kenneth Polite was quick to respond. “The mayor has requested and I have agreed that those similarities are sufficient enough to warrant additional federal resources” said the U.S Attorney.
Should all three cases be linked, the criminals will face time in federal prison. Despite added support of federal resources local business owners don’t feel safe.
“This is the fourth robbery uptown, circle k was robbed in the midst of all of that at 7, so it’s not just things that are happening late at night, but we’re open until 8 and it’s considered early and it makes me uneasy for my customers and my employees to be here just closing up shop” said Ellie Thomas, owner Fresh on Magazine street across the street from Monkey Hill.
According to Ellie, with the lack of police enforcement local shop owners feel an added pressure to band together: “other business owners are reaching out, everybody kind of has banded together, and the neighbors, the residents, everybody’s made a point to ask about things and ask about whats going on and keep everybody informed”.
With the additional federal resources in the investigation the mayor is calling on our city to team up and report the criminals with a $30,000 reward: “We’re going to rely on citizens, who know who these guys are, who can bring tips to us, who can get a reward, if you do the citizens duty and make sure that we collectively as a city protect each other because it’s all connected”.