Girl, 5, woman killed
in Central City shooting;
3 others injured
Published: Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 7:50 PM Updated: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 6:24 PM
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.
MICHAEL DEMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE While awaiting EMS to arrive, a man comforts a seven-year-old girl shot at a birthday party on the porch in the 1200 block of Simon Bolivar Avenue just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. In all five people were shot in the incident. Child, four others shot in Central City gallery (22 photos)
The 5-year-old Briana Allen, was shot as she stood on a porch tied with Happy Birthday balloons.
"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, Shawanna Pierce, mother of three, 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.
The video above, shared by New Orleans police, shows the three Central City shooters.
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.
A police officer was pumping her chest, said a man who had just left home to go to a barber shop on Simon Bolivar.
"He was trying to save her," he said.
The 5-year-old girl had gunshot wounds to the abdomen and died at a hospital, police said.
New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas called the shooting an act of "cowardice" ... to be overcome by the city of New Orleans.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who also was at the scene after the shooting, called the shootings "irrational" and the act of "thugs" who did not care about the children's party.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll-free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn as much as $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.
Child among five shot - Landrieu and Serpas respond Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Police Chief Ronal Serpas hold a briefing after five people were shot at the scene of a child's birthday party on a porch in the 1200 block of Simon Bolivar Avenue just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 29, 2012. Watch video
The shooting followed a series of three shootings across the city, one of them fatal.
A male was fatally shot in the head outside a body shop near the corner of Toulouse and Gayoso Streets about 3:30 p.m. He was transported to a hospital and died shortly afterward.
About 40 minutes earlier, in the 7100 block of Deanne Street in eastern New Orleans, a 19-year-old man was shot in the neck, according to New Orleans police spokeswoman Remi Braden.
Another shooting occurred a few minutes later in the 4300 block of South Carrollton Avenue, near Baudin Street. There, a male was shot in the stomach.
Additional details, such as the ages of the victims in those three shootings, as well as possible motives or suspects, were not immediately released.
Leslie Williams can be reached at lwilliams@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3358.
__________________________
[ALSO THE SAME DAY]
One man killed,
two others wounded
in shootings
in New Orleans
this afternoon
Published: Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 4:46 PM Updated: Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 7:26 PM
MICHAEL DEMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE A man grieves while sitting on a car in front of a body shop on Gayoso Street as New Orleans Police investigate the fatal shooting of a man on Tuesday, May 29, 2012.
New Orleans police are investigating three shootings this afternoon, one in eastern New Orleans and two in Mid-City. One man was killed. Two victims had injuries that were not considered life-threatening, according to police.
The first shooting took place shortly before 3 p.m. in the 7100 block of Deanne Street in eastern New Orleans. There, a 19-year-old man was shot in the neck, according to New Orleans police spokeswoman Remi Braden.
Minutes later, a male was shot in the head outside a body shop near the corner of Toulouse and Gayoso Streets. He was transported to a local hospital and died shortly afterward.
Additional details, such as the ages of the victims, as well as possible motives or suspects, were not immediately released.
__________________________
Black People,
All People,
Bleed Red
By Greta Gladney
On Tuesday, I returned home after ten days travel. I use my time away from the office and New Orleans to recharge, re-energize and refocus on my life and my work.
I called Cynthia Wiggins, CEO of Guste Homes Wednesday morning to confirm our first Friday of the month Mobile Market and learned of the shooting on Tuesday outside the building. The woman who died in the car, from two gunshots to the head, was the daughter of a Guste resident. She told me that a five-year old girl also died.
Last night we continued our African American Women: Breaking Silence series of speakers with Terry Mogilles, RN, a mental health provider and executive director of Positive Living Treatment Center. Terry’s co-presenter, Brandon Williams, was a young African American man, a first for our series. He presented on racial disparity while those of us in the room realized that he is an outlier, an African American male under 35, and holder of an advanced degree in public health who works in IT at Ochsner Hospital and volunteers at a mental health transitional housing facility.
During the question and answer period, our conversation turned to the recent shootings in Central City and the publication of photos in the Times Picayune, the one of a 5-year-old girl in particular.
I found a link to the photos online.
I believe that there is a psychological impact on every New Orleanian who watches the local news, sees these photos, witnesses violent death, and continues to live and breathe in this City. Black people, all people bleed red and everyone in this City is suffering.
I did not want to see the child lying on the ground as Vera Warren had described her last night. But I did. I was not prepared to see the photos of the car, including a close up of the auto interior; its driver’s side airbag covered with the blood of a woman I did not know who had just visited her mother, a resident whom I have yet to meet, from a community the Renaissance Project serves at Guste Homes.
I did not digest the news well or at all.
As an organization, are we supposed to stop providing our food pantry and fresh markets at Guste? Can we live, individually and collectively, in conscious fear of driving through the City and stop providing services to the poor? Is it time to throw in the towel and close shop?
I wanted to leave town again.
Last week our presenter Deon Haywood of Women With a Vision had her office burned the night of her presentation.
And the previous week our presenter and videographer Ashley Jones learned while setting up the projector that her home had been burglarized for the second time in less than ten days. Vera Warren, owner of Community Book Center, asked me to consider the potential connection between our Racial Healing presentations and recent acts of theft and arson. The incidents are correlated with and connected to the relationships we have established as participants in the Breaking Silence project. We know the intimate details of each others lives.
Residents, who simply like to socialize, will be restricted from congregating outside the building, a further disruption to our well-worn social fabric. Bulletproof glass will replace the office windows soon.
Everyone, across race, creed, and orientation, must respond to our call to action to alleviate poverty and reduce racial disparity in New Orleans. For our part, we will connect Positive Living and Pyramid Wellness to the Guste Community for mental health services to begin a process of healing. Our June presentations for African American Women: Breaking Silence to Heal Ourselves and Our Communities are under preparation as I speak. We will continue to provide food banking, fresh markets, SNAP, Medicaid, Medicare enrollment and racial healing story circles to low-income families in New Orleans.
Chanel Lafarge of George’s Produce delivered and we sold watermelons, bananas, oranges and strawberries to the residents today.
Greta Gladney is Executive Director of The Renaissance Project.