NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Leaders with the New Orleans Police Department will gather on Wednesday to discuss recent crimes within the city.
The press conference comes less than 24 hours after police responded to back-to-back shootings in the city — both deadly.
Around 8:40 p.m. Tuesday, the NOPD responded to the McDonald’s restaurant in the 1900 block of North Broad Street where a man was found unresponsive after being shot. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Minutes later, police were called to the 3100 block of Saint Claude Avenue where another man had been shot. He was taken to an area hospital where he later died.
Other details regarding both shootings were unclear in the early reports of the investigations, however, we can expect to learn more about what happened Tuesday night.
“We did see an uptick, an unfortunate uptick in violent crime in the city,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.
Day after day, another murder after murder.
“We will no longer allow you to gun down women and children on our streets,” Superintendent Michelle Woodfork with the NOPD said.
Although murders are down 13 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, city leaders still recognize that one murder is one too many.
“Our citizens want to be safe. They want a better quality of life,” Woodfork said.
Last week two college students, Jadiamond Jones and Imani Williams lost their lives on North Claiborne. These murders are something the Mayor wants to set the record straight about.
“Apologizing for my words. Messaging seems to be misconstrued as for blaming victims. The women that lost their lives. I did not intend to hurt anyone. My heart remains heavy. I’m very sorry for that and I apologize,” Mayor Cantrell said.
Police are currently looking for two vehicles in that case.
In other recent cases the NOPD says they are catching suspects quickly.
“In the past two weeks we’ve made 9 arrests in homicide investigations,” Woodfork said.
She went on to say, “We are going to continue to aggressively and I do mean aggressively pursue you and you will be held accountable for your actions.”
Stay tuned to WGNO on air and online for updates.
Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter.