I'd Forgotten About Juan
From 61706 Times Picayune Online:
Five teens killed in N.O.
By Michelle Krupa
Staff writer
In the bloodiest slaughter to unfold on the streets of New Orleans in more than a decade, five teen-agers were shot and killed before dawn Saturday when one or more gunmen pumped a barrage of bullets into their sport utility vehicle as they rode through a sparsely occupied neighborhood in Central City.
Police had no suspects late Saturday, but based on “the sheer carnage” of the crime, investigators believe the massacre was rooted in an altercation over drugs or was carried out in retaliation for an earlier dispute, New Orleans Police Department Capt. John Bryson said.
“Somebody wanted them dead, obviously,” Bryson said. “They intended these five people to be dead.”
Despite escalating violence as residents have returned to the ravaged city since Hurricane Katrina, police seemed shocked Saturday, both by the age of the victims — three were 19, and the others were 16 and 17 — and the brazen nature of the killing spree, which erupted around 4 a.m. near the intersection of Josephine and Danneel streets.
“This is almost beyond explaining,” Bryson said.
The victims, all from New Orleans, were Arsenio Hunter, 16; Warren Simoen, 17; Iruan Taylor, 19; Reggie Dantzler, 19; and Marquis Hunter, 19, said John Gagliano, the chief investigator for Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard.
Bryson said he could not immediately remember another atrocity with so many victims, though he said Saturday’s killings called to mind a 1996 shooting that left three dead at a Louisiana Pizza Kitchen restaurant in the French Quarter and a 2004 armed robbery at a Treme restaurant and bar in which four people were killed.
Indeed, five people have not died in a single violent episode since March 1, 1995, when Juan Smith, then 20, sprayed bullets through a North Roman Street house, a crime for which he was sent to prison for life.
Later, Smith was sentenced to die by lethal injection for a triple murder on Feb. 4, 1995, at a home on Morrison Avenue in which he shot a 3-year-old nine times, along with the toddler’s mother and her fiance.
The latest assault brings to 52 the number of people murdered in New Orleans this year, with Saturday’s incident boosting the total by more than 10 percent over the previous tally. The city’s homicide rate since April has been more than twice as high as for the first three months of 2006, when just 17 killings were recorded.
Officers patrolling in Central City and neighbors reported hearing “multiple, multiple rounds” fired from a semiautomatic weapon Saturday morning, Bryson said.
Police believe one or more shooters approached the victims’ blue Ford Explorer as it was heading downtown on Danneel Street and fired into it from the driver’s side. The bodies of Arsenio Hunter, Simoen and Taylor were found inside the SUV, which came to rest against a utility pole.
Their bodies were riddled with multiple gunshot wounds, Bryson said.
All three were pronounced dead at the scene, Gagliano said.
Dantzler and Marquis Hunter, who police suspect also had been in the SUV, were found not far away, Bryson said. Dantzler, who was pronounced dead by emergency workers, was found on a nearby sidewalk with a bullet wound to the head.
Marquis Hunter, who is thought to be the brother or cousin of Arsenio Hunter, was discovered with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body in the 2000 block of Danneel, about a quarter of a block from the SUV, Bryson said. He died at 8 a.m. at Charity Hospital’s trauma unit at Elmwood Medical Center after he was taken from the scene of the shootings in critical condition, Gagliano said.
Bryson said no weapons or drugs were immediately visible in the SUV, although he added that thieves commonly pick crime scenes clean of such items before authorities arrive. Investigators will conduct a thorough search of the vehicle in coming days, he said.
Almost eight hours after the grisly attack Saturday, as a hot midday sun beat down on Central City, a pair of laborers working at a Josephine Street home that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina shifted their efforts outdoors, shoveling debris away from the cleared crime scene.
Up and down nearby streets, where most houses still bear the tell-tale spray-painted Xs left by rescue workers after the Aug. 29 storm, neighbors gathered on porches and discussed the gruesome crime and the recklessness of adults who, they said, should have been minding the victims.
“How could you let a 16-year-old go out at that time of the morning?” asked James Williams, 26, a New Orleanian who moved to Jackson, Miss., shortly before Katrina. “And for (the perpetrators) to do something like this to the children is a shame.”
One woman, who requested anonymity, said she was at her home just a few yards from the crime scene when she heard shots ring out. She said the shooting went on for two or three minutes.
“There were so many gunshots that you couldn’t even count them,” she said.
Sitting on a stoop across Danneel Street from the spot where the SUV slid to a halt, Clarence Joseph peered at a patch of bloodstained asphalt and evoked religious prophecy to describe the early morning carnage.
“The Bible said that if you don’t teach them at home, the world is going to get them,” he said. “And that’s what happening.”
At 73 years old, Joseph said he has seen his share of bloodshed. But none of it, he said, compares with what happened Saturday. “This is the worst I’ve seen yet,” he said. “The worst I’ve seen yet.”
Even Bryson, a veteran officer with 26 years in the NOPD, choked back emotion as he detailed the crime for reporters at a late morning news conference.
“I’m a father, and I couldn’t imagine getting this news today, the day before Father’s Day,” Bryson said.
Bryson also implored residents to help the police fight the criminal activity that has seeped back into the city since it was emptied by Katrina. He stressed that although officers are trained to handle the city’s worst criminals, they also contend with the personal effects of crime in their communities.
“People forget: police officers are people, too,” Bryson said. “We have families. We’re recovering from Katrina, too.”
Police are asking anyone with information to contact Crimestoppers at 822-1111 or toll-free at (877) 903-7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.
Staff writers Gwen Filosa and Bob Ussery contributed to this report.
Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or (504)826-3312.
Looks like this may be the one to bring in the nat'l guard. How long ago did you suggest that?
New Orleans asks for National Guard after murders
To the chagrin of my liberal friends I have been spewing that message for years (although last night on a friend's blog I said the guard was probably not the answer). Anyway, it may or may not happen, and as I have read it they want the guard to go back on looter patrol in the huge swaths of depopulated areas so to free up the police to do what they need to do. I think stopping these type of murders is next to impossible, by police or military police action, but I'm all for any effort towards the cause. You know how I love my per capita comparisons. 5 in one day in the current NO population would be the equivalent of 150 murders in one NYC day. And I know I'm going way out on a limb here, but I think that's too many.
Having the Guard do civil affains in NOLA would be good training. Before we start another nation building project, it would be good to have a proven track record for city building. We got the destruction part totally nailed, no doubt about it.
It's kinda weird. A fair amount of people I know in NO really liked seeing the guard in their neighborhoods right after Katrina. It made them feel safe. That has never been my feeling about them. They don't really make me feel safe. They make me feel a little edgy, very similar to how I feel when a gangbanger in a tricked out automobile fishtails around a corner in the neighborhood. But still, I like the idea that finally someone in power has just said we can't fix this and have taken a big step towards attempting to fix it. I think it opens up the dialogue for serious discussion, and perhaps will make the people actually in New Orleans, feel better. They can't have both the dysfunctions (Katrina recovery and over the top violent crime) going at once. Totally fucking unacceptable. Good, bring in the troops. The headlines for this story are pretty rich. Anyway, it's about time someone finally shined a light on the fact that we already have a war going on in parts of America. Fuckin A, bring in the troops. Good luck to my friends down there, don't get caught in the crossfire.
International Hearld Tribune
NEW ORLEANS In a blunt admission that New Orleans can no longer control its growing crime problem, Mayor C. Ray Nagin asked the state of Louisiana to send National Guard troops to help patrol the city streets.
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said that 100 troops, joined by 60 state police, would be in place as early as Tuesday morning. More are likely to arrive later in the week.
Morning killing comes as Guard set to arrive
Shooting occurred just blocks from scene of quintuple murder
|
From 61706 Times Picayune Online:
Five teens killed in N.O.
By Michelle Krupa
Staff writer
In the bloodiest slaughter to unfold on the streets of New Orleans in more than a decade, five teen-agers were shot and killed before dawn Saturday when one or more gunmen pumped a barrage of bullets into their sport utility vehicle as they rode through a sparsely occupied neighborhood in Central City.
Police had no suspects late Saturday, but based on “the sheer carnage” of the crime, investigators believe the massacre was rooted in an altercation over drugs or was carried out in retaliation for an earlier dispute, New Orleans Police Department Capt. John Bryson said.
“Somebody wanted them dead, obviously,” Bryson said. “They intended these five people to be dead.”
Despite escalating violence as residents have returned to the ravaged city since Hurricane Katrina, police seemed shocked Saturday, both by the age of the victims — three were 19, and the others were 16 and 17 — and the brazen nature of the killing spree, which erupted around 4 a.m. near the intersection of Josephine and Danneel streets.
“This is almost beyond explaining,” Bryson said.
The victims, all from New Orleans, were Arsenio Hunter, 16; Warren Simoen, 17; Iruan Taylor, 19; Reggie Dantzler, 19; and Marquis Hunter, 19, said John Gagliano, the chief investigator for Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard.
Bryson said he could not immediately remember another atrocity with so many victims, though he said Saturday’s killings called to mind a 1996 shooting that left three dead at a Louisiana Pizza Kitchen restaurant in the French Quarter and a 2004 armed robbery at a Treme restaurant and bar in which four people were killed.
Indeed, five people have not died in a single violent episode since March 1, 1995, when Juan Smith, then 20, sprayed bullets through a North Roman Street house, a crime for which he was sent to prison for life.
Later, Smith was sentenced to die by lethal injection for a triple murder on Feb. 4, 1995, at a home on Morrison Avenue in which he shot a 3-year-old nine times, along with the toddler’s mother and her fiance.
The latest assault brings to 52 the number of people murdered in New Orleans this year, with Saturday’s incident boosting the total by more than 10 percent over the previous tally. The city’s homicide rate since April has been more than twice as high as for the first three months of 2006, when just 17 killings were recorded.
Officers patrolling in Central City and neighbors reported hearing “multiple, multiple rounds” fired from a semiautomatic weapon Saturday morning, Bryson said.
Police believe one or more shooters approached the victims’ blue Ford Explorer as it was heading downtown on Danneel Street and fired into it from the driver’s side. The bodies of Arsenio Hunter, Simoen and Taylor were found inside the SUV, which came to rest against a utility pole.
Their bodies were riddled with multiple gunshot wounds, Bryson said.
All three were pronounced dead at the scene, Gagliano said.
Dantzler and Marquis Hunter, who police suspect also had been in the SUV, were found not far away, Bryson said. Dantzler, who was pronounced dead by emergency workers, was found on a nearby sidewalk with a bullet wound to the head.
Marquis Hunter, who is thought to be the brother or cousin of Arsenio Hunter, was discovered with multiple gunshot wounds to the head and body in the 2000 block of Danneel, about a quarter of a block from the SUV, Bryson said. He died at 8 a.m. at Charity Hospital’s trauma unit at Elmwood Medical Center after he was taken from the scene of the shootings in critical condition, Gagliano said.
Bryson said no weapons or drugs were immediately visible in the SUV, although he added that thieves commonly pick crime scenes clean of such items before authorities arrive. Investigators will conduct a thorough search of the vehicle in coming days, he said.
Almost eight hours after the grisly attack Saturday, as a hot midday sun beat down on Central City, a pair of laborers working at a Josephine Street home that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina shifted their efforts outdoors, shoveling debris away from the cleared crime scene.
Up and down nearby streets, where most houses still bear the tell-tale spray-painted Xs left by rescue workers after the Aug. 29 storm, neighbors gathered on porches and discussed the gruesome crime and the recklessness of adults who, they said, should have been minding the victims.
“How could you let a 16-year-old go out at that time of the morning?” asked James Williams, 26, a New Orleanian who moved to Jackson, Miss., shortly before Katrina. “And for (the perpetrators) to do something like this to the children is a shame.”
One woman, who requested anonymity, said she was at her home just a few yards from the crime scene when she heard shots ring out. She said the shooting went on for two or three minutes.
“There were so many gunshots that you couldn’t even count them,” she said.
Sitting on a stoop across Danneel Street from the spot where the SUV slid to a halt, Clarence Joseph peered at a patch of bloodstained asphalt and evoked religious prophecy to describe the early morning carnage.
“The Bible said that if you don’t teach them at home, the world is going to get them,” he said. “And that’s what happening.”
At 73 years old, Joseph said he has seen his share of bloodshed. But none of it, he said, compares with what happened Saturday. “This is the worst I’ve seen yet,” he said. “The worst I’ve seen yet.”
Even Bryson, a veteran officer with 26 years in the NOPD, choked back emotion as he detailed the crime for reporters at a late morning news conference.
“I’m a father, and I couldn’t imagine getting this news today, the day before Father’s Day,” Bryson said.
Bryson also implored residents to help the police fight the criminal activity that has seeped back into the city since it was emptied by Katrina. He stressed that although officers are trained to handle the city’s worst criminals, they also contend with the personal effects of crime in their communities.
“People forget: police officers are people, too,” Bryson said. “We have families. We’re recovering from Katrina, too.”
Police are asking anyone with information to contact Crimestoppers at 822-1111 or toll-free at (877) 903-7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.
Staff writers Gwen Filosa and Bob Ussery contributed to this report.
Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or (504)826-3312.
- jimlouis 6-18-2006 8:11 am
Looks like this may be the one to bring in the nat'l guard. How long ago did you suggest that?
- johnsch (guest) 6-19-2006 10:42 pm [add a comment]
New Orleans asks for National Guard after murders
- mark 6-19-2006 11:42 pm [add a comment]
To the chagrin of my liberal friends I have been spewing that message for years (although last night on a friend's blog I said the guard was probably not the answer). Anyway, it may or may not happen, and as I have read it they want the guard to go back on looter patrol in the huge swaths of depopulated areas so to free up the police to do what they need to do. I think stopping these type of murders is next to impossible, by police or military police action, but I'm all for any effort towards the cause. You know how I love my per capita comparisons. 5 in one day in the current NO population would be the equivalent of 150 murders in one NYC day. And I know I'm going way out on a limb here, but I think that's too many.
- jimlouis 6-20-2006 2:27 am [add a comment]
Having the Guard do civil affains in NOLA would be good training. Before we start another nation building project, it would be good to have a proven track record for city building. We got the destruction part totally nailed, no doubt about it.
- mark 6-20-2006 3:13 am [add a comment]
It's kinda weird. A fair amount of people I know in NO really liked seeing the guard in their neighborhoods right after Katrina. It made them feel safe. That has never been my feeling about them. They don't really make me feel safe. They make me feel a little edgy, very similar to how I feel when a gangbanger in a tricked out automobile fishtails around a corner in the neighborhood. But still, I like the idea that finally someone in power has just said we can't fix this and have taken a big step towards attempting to fix it. I think it opens up the dialogue for serious discussion, and perhaps will make the people actually in New Orleans, feel better. They can't have both the dysfunctions (Katrina recovery and over the top violent crime) going at once. Totally fucking unacceptable. Good, bring in the troops. The headlines for this story are pretty rich. Anyway, it's about time someone finally shined a light on the fact that we already have a war going on in parts of America. Fuckin A, bring in the troops. Good luck to my friends down there, don't get caught in the crossfire.
- jimlouis 6-20-2006 5:37 am [add a comment]
International Hearld Tribune
NEW ORLEANS In a blunt admission that New Orleans can no longer control its growing crime problem, Mayor C. Ray Nagin asked the state of Louisiana to send National Guard troops to help patrol the city streets.
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said that 100 troops, joined by 60 state police, would be in place as early as Tuesday morning. More are likely to arrive later in the week.
- mark 6-20-2006 9:52 pm [add a comment]
Morning killing comes as Guard set to arrive
Shooting occurred just blocks from scene of quintuple murder
- jimlouis 6-20-2006 10:07 pm [add a comment]