Terrifying moment crowds run for cover as gunfire rings out on Bourbon Street in New Orleans – leaving at least five wounded
- Gunfire was reported at 3am on Sunday in the heart of the Latin Quarter
- Five people were wounded, with their condition unknown, and one arrested
- New Orleans is seeing a surge in gun violence, like many cities across the US
- Per capita, only St Louis and Baton Rouge have seen more fatal shootings
- From June 2020 until May 2021 there were 49.88 fatal shootings per 100,000 people – compared to 32.84 for the same time period a year prior
Five people were wounded in the early hours of Sunday after a gunfight erupted along New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street, forcing crowds of revelers to run in panic.
Footage showed the crowd scattering, running as fast as they could to escape the scene.
The shooting happened near Bourbon and Orleans Streets, about two blocks from Jackson Square, New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) reported around 3am.
Police were on the scene in minutes, and LaToya Cantrell, the mayor of New Orleans, and NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson both made it to the scene.
On Sunday the NOPD said that one person was in custody, and the investigation was ongoing.
The condition of those shot was unclear.
Crowds of revelers are seen running for their lives in the early hours of Sunday as gunfire rang out along Bourbon Street, in the heart of New Orleans’ tourist area
Police were quickly on the scene and taped off the area. The chief of New Orleans police and the mayor were also on site
Shootings are soaring in New Orleans: per capita, only Detroit, Rochester, Minneapolis and Milwaukee saw sharper rises in non-fatal incidents.
Fatal shootings are also on the rise in the Louisiana city.
From June 2020 until May 2021, there were 49.88 fatal shootings per 100,000 people – compared to 32.84 for the same time period a year prior.
Only Baton Rouge, with 57 per 100,000, and St Louis, with 94 per 100,000, were worse.
There have been 194 fatal shootings in New Orleans in the period June 2020 to May 2021, according to AmericanViolence.org – an increase of 66 from the same time frame the year before.
Chicago has by far the most fatal shootings, with 730 recorded in the time frame. Philadelphia has had 470, and New York City 340.
Chicago also leads with non-fatal shootings, clocking 3,576. Philadelphia had 2,030 and New York City 1,531.
Bourbon Street in New Orleans, pictured in July 2020, is one of the most popular drinking and dining areas in the city
The Latin Quarter is thronged with people year round, but particularly during Mardi Gras (above)
Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, found that the per-capita murder rate climbed 30 per cent in 2020 among 34 major cities.
Murders in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago accounted for 40 per cent of the 1,268 additional people killed in 2020, compared to the previous year, in the cities Rosenfeld studied.
In the first quarter of 2021, the research showed, the murder rate had declined from a peak the previous summer but was still up 24 per cent over the first quarter of 2020.
President Joe Biden pledged in June to go after the ‘merchants of death’ who traffic illegal guns and to boost funding for local law enforcement nationwide.
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