A 5-year-old girl and a 33-year-old woman died from gunshot wounds Tuesday afternoon in a fusillade in Central City, New Orleans police said. A 10-year-old boy had graze wounds to the face and leg, a 20-year-old man was wounded in the wrist and a 24-year-old man was shot in the face, police said.
“It was my grandson’s birthday party,” said a woman, referring to the 10-year-old boy.
She said she was sitting on bricks across the street near the Guste high rise when “three dudes came from that direction,” the intersection of Simon Bolivar Avenue and Clio Street.
Initially she thought the weapons in their hands were “play guns.” She said the armed men were shooting at other people who ran to the birthday party area.
Police marked about 24 casings spread in front of an area on Simon Bolivar Avenue from 1212-1214 Simon Bolivar Avenue to Clio Street. Casings littered the asphalt street as well as the neutral ground.
The shooting started about 5:45 p.m. in the 1200 block of Simon Bolivar Avenue, according to police. who are trying to reconstruct events leading up to the violence.
The 33-year-old woman was shot while driving a green Mazda 3 on Simon Bolivar Avenue. After she was hit, she crashed the car into a utility pole at Simon Bolivar and Thalia Street.
She had nothing to do with the violence; a bullet traveled about three blocks and hit her, said police, noting the information is preliminary. Blood was smeared on an airbag that deployed in the crash.