Two teenagers die in New Orleans shooting

 
Siege: A SWAT team outside the Westin Hotel
David Gardner11 August 2014

Two teenagers were killed and three children seriously injured in a drive-by shooting near New Orleans’s famous French Quarter.

A total of seven people were shot in a barrage of gunfire at 8pm last night when a dark-coloured car pulled up and gunmen inside opened fire at a crowd of people on the front porch of a house in the Lower 9th ward before speeding off.

“There were eight or nine shots, then a pause, then at least six or nine more,” a neighbour told the local Times Picayune newspaper. “The shots came in pretty quick succession. You could still hear music playing, but then there was all this screaming.

“I saw some family come out, and they said their little girl had been shot in the head.”

Residents identified one of the dead teens as 16-year-old arts student Jasmine Anderson.

“She was a good student, and she was just an innocent bystander,” Lillie Reese, Anderson’s great aunt, told the newpaper. “She had just gone to get a bottle of water and was walking past that house. Now my niece’s life is gone behind someone else’s foolishness.’

Two dead: an ambulance at the scene in New Orleans

The other dead victim is believed to be a teenage boy who lived across the street from Anderson.

Two toddlers were injured, one of whom was said to have been shot in the head, and two other victims were said to be in stable condition in hospital. Police officer Frank Robertson said that the killers had not been identified.

In an unrelated incident yesterday, a 20-year-old man shot a friend inside a hotel room at the edge of the French Quarter, then killed himself after a three-hour standoff with police.

The shootings happened in a 17th-floor room at The Westin on Canal Street, where four friends from Lafayette, Lousiana, were staying for the weekend, said Officer Robertson.

Three of them returned to the room at 5am, waking the other man who fell asleep again before being woken by someone saying, “Put the gun down.”

Police said the 20-year-old, looking “dazed and confused under the influence of some unknown substance”, was pointing a gun at their 24-year-old friend. The older man repeatedly asked his friend to put down the gun, but at about 6.30am was shot in the chest. The other two men ran for help, hearing a second shot as they fled.

When hotel staff let police into the room, the 20-year-old forced them out at gunpoint. After three hours of negotiations, he apparently shot himself.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in