NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – New Orleans police are trying to find out who is responsible for killing a man outside a bar Tuesday morning in the Marigny.
Neighbors who live in the area say the man was fatally shot outside of Big Daddy’s on the Franklin Avenue side of the bar and that surveillance video, circulating on social media, shows two men firing multiple gunshots before running off toward St. Roch Avenue.
“They came in two, I would say episodes, like one, two and then a rapid fire,” recounted Lorelei Dickey Cropley, who lives across the street from the bar on Royal Street. “I immediately knew it was right outside my house. I contacted my neighbors across the street: ‘Did you hear that?’”
According to police, the homicide happened around 2:30 a.m., and the victim died on scene.
A bartender says a man whom they’ve never seen before ordered a drink from their bar, and about forty minutes later, he was shot to death on the sidewalk.
Cropley says once she heard the gunshots, she headed to her second-floor balcony that is overlooking Big Daddy’s and saw officers rush to the scene.
“Apparently, somebody inside Big Daddy’s called [the police], and when I got there, the police had just arrived and were starting to tape off the area,” said Cropley. “You could still see the body.”
Cropley says she and her neighbors are traumatized by the killing and that it is not representative of their neighborhood.
“It’s terrible. I have a son, who, coming back from college, pulls up at 2:30 in the morning. He should be able to safely walk inside the house,” said Cropley. “It’s usually kind of peaceful here.”
The neighborhood is planning on getting together Monday evening with the district’s police representative to discuss solutions, and they are hoping nearby business owners will attend.
“We want a safe neighborhood, and we realize safety is difficult in a city that’s overstretched with its budget and with police resources, but we know it can be done,” said Cropley.
No arrests have been made. The investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information that can aid in the investigation is asked to contact NOPD Homicide Det. John Bakula at 504-658-5300 or to call Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans anonymously at 504-822-1111.