Twelve people are being treated for gunshot wounds following a shootout at a second line parade on Mother’s Day in New Orleans. The youngest victim in the surprise attack was 10 years old, according to a local resident.
Over 300 people were participating in the residential festival, on Frenchmen Street, in the east of the city, when several shots were fired. The incident occurred around 2pm local time on Sunday.
Nine people were immediately taken to University Hospital by emergency responders, eight of whom had gunshot wounds, according to local channel WWLTV. One more was injured in an attempt to escape from the shooting.
No fatalities have been confirmed, but four are in a critical condition.
Police confirmed the number of casualties stood at 12 following some discrepancies in initial hospital reports, suggesting that between five and 11 may have been injured.
Police believe three suspects were responsible for the gunfire, who were seen fleeing towards Claiborne Avenue. A door-to-door search is being conducted in the hopes of tracing one or more of them.
In the same way investigators of the Boston Marathon Bombings appealed for crowdsourced photographs, police have urged anyone with any photographs of the parade to step forward.
“The shots just started ringing out, and everybody just started running, and the next thing I heard, 10-15 people got shot,” one witness told local station WDSU.
A week ago, police were also called out to investigate a triple shooting near the corner of Frenchman street.
Police and local media had appealed for anyone with information on the incident to contact crime stoppers in the hope of tracing the gunman, or gunmen.
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