New Orleans (US): A shooting in a New Orleans neighborhood that has struggled with crime since being ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 left two people dead and five others wounded, including a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, police said.
The children and another victim from the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood were in critical condition after yesterday’s shooting, and two other people were stable, police spokesman Frank Robertson said.
He didn’t immediately release any other information, including a possible motive for the shooting.
The Lower Ninth, a predominantly black neighborhood less than 8 kilometers from the bustling tourist district of the French Quarter, was overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina’s floods in 2005. It has been one of the slowest parts of the city to recover because many homeowners couldn’t afford insurance.
In a separate, unrelated spate of violence, a 20-year-old man shot a friend last morning inside a hotel room at the edge of the Quarter, then killed himself after a three-hour standoff with police, authorities said.
Those shootings happened in a 17th-floor room at The Westin on Canal Street, where four friends from the Lafayette area were staying together for the weekend, Robertson said in a news release.
