NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Starting in August, harsher punishment is in store for people who commit drive-by shootings.
Governor John Bel Edwards (D-La.) signed Senate Bill 117 into law, which will increase penalties for drive-by shootings and expand the law’s scope to include interstate shootings.
Perpetrators now will not have a chance at a one-year sentence.
“We recognized that that was something very low for the actual crime, so we changed the penalty phase from one to three [years] to three to 10,” the bill’s author Senator Jimmy Harris said.
Jeremy Patterson, the owner of Patterson Structural Moving and Shorting, located on Old Gentilly Road in New Orleans East, says he and his employees have been caught in the crossfire in multiple drive-by shootings.
“You know, we’ve got shootings on I-10 at our vehicles, we’ve had shootings on the I-10. I’ve been shot at on the I-10 myself,” Patterson admitted. “We’ve had drive-by shootings where people are shooting in our yard on Old Gentilly Road.”
The crime has made some of his employees fearful for their lives.
Patterson said, “They will go through Slidell just so they don’t have to go over the [I-10 Highrise Bridge], which is costing us, as a family, time and money, but how do you put a price on someone’s life?”
The business owner and New Orleans East resident says the new law is a step in the right direction, but more action must be taken.
“You can have all the rules you want in life, but if there’s nobody enforcing them, what good is it, right? I think that’s a great step. I think the governor did a great thing here, our legislators are doing a great thing, but we need help, guys,” Patterson pleaded. “We need help.”
Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams released the following statement:
The nature and methods of violent crime in our communities have evolved, and that demands that our responses also evolve to counter new threats. Senator Jimmy Harris accepted and delivered upon that charge with the introduction and successful passage of Senate Bill 117, which strengthens penalties for drive-by shootings and expands the law’s reach to include shootings on interstate highways. This new bill ensures that the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners are equipped with another resource to appropriately prosecute violent criminals who act recklessly and deter others who might plan to do so. Senate Bill 117 will benefit jurisdictions across the state, but we expect its impact to resonate in New Orleans, particularly, where we’ve experienced a rash of violent interstate shootings and careless discharging of weapons from moving vehicles. We are grateful to Senator Harris and the Louisiana Legislature for hearing the countless voices call for solutions to violence on our roadways and taking swift action.
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