NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The New Orleans Police Department is investigating a fatal shooting in Algiers that left three people wounded and one dead on Wednesday, Jan. 24.
The early morning shooting near Wall Boulevard and Murl Street has neighbors talking.
Bobby LaFrance has lived in Algiers all his life. He said after Hurricane Katrina, the community went downhill to the point where even he’s been a victim.
“Passing by LB Landry, a woman was driving like she was trying to hit me, so when I stopped, a young dude jumped out the truck and drew down on me. How close he was I could have taken the gun from him, but I didn’t know what the woman behind me had, so the spirit told me to give it up,” said LaFrance.
Lafrance said these days, he has an uneasy feeling when he’s in the area.
“I don’t trust anybody walking behind my back. I watch everywhere I go. You can’t even trust the girls because they set up artists. They set you up for the boys. I don’t trust anything, black, white nothing,” said LaFrance.
In this instance, two of the four shot were juveniles.
Mike Willis with the Hope Foundation is also an Algiers native. He hates that another family is left to mourn the life of a loved one.
“Like, we already know the problem. We then talked about this all last year, the year before and the year before that. When do we start coming up with these solid solutions and sticking to them. We are dealing with a crisis where for some reason the children or the youth are afraid to live or die,” said Willis.
Once again, Willis is calling on local leaders to have a sense of urgency to get a grip on gun violence.
“We might have to give them some ideas versus what they are doing because you are telling the city you are short on everything. You ain’t got enough police and that. Of course, you then told the criminals, we might get away with some of this stuff because New Orleans really is not a city that is being governed right now,” said Willis.
The Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office identified the deceased as 19-year-old Antoine Patin on Jan. 26.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call NOPD Homicide Section detectives at (504)-658-5300 or Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans at (504)-822-1111.
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