A report released Monday by the Metropolitan Crime Commission showed that “mass shootings are getting deadlier,” in New Orleans, organization president Rafael Goyeneche told WWL’s Newell Normand.
He said that there were nine mass shootings by May 21 last year, compared to eight this year. However, while there were nine victims during that time period in 2022, there have been 13 as of May 21, 2023.
“One that occurred Saturday night is unfortunately another strong example of that, where some of the people at the scene reported over 100 shots being fired and two people were murdered, two people were wounded,” said Goyeneche.
New Orleans police were investigating at least three separate shootings that happened within a half-an-hour of each other Saturday night, WWL’s Ian Auzenne reported. At least two were killed.
Another nine were injured during a Sunday mass shooting event reported this weekend at a party in Thibodeau. WWL’s Chris Miller reported that seven people were hit by bullets, and two more were injured as the crowd fled from the scene, citing the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office Victims ranged in age from 17 to 25, the report said.
“The mother of one of the homicide victims was quoted as saying that boys are coming from across the river, shooting up the boys out here,” said Goyeneche of the weekend violence. “And those boys – meaning the shooters – are bragging on Instagram how they killed [her] niece.”
Goyeneche said that more shootings are intended to be “message incidents” rather than shootings that occur as a result of other crimes such as robbery or carjacking.
“I think the public needs to become more sophisticated and knowledgeable about the root causes of some of the crimes that we are experiencing,” he said. “And there’s nothing more high profile than homicides. Quite frankly, I don't know what, if anything, the police department could have done to have prevented this. This is really a social problem that is playing itself out in the streets that the police department is forced now to respond to.”
Listen to Goyeneche’s full conversation with Normand here to learn more insights from the report.
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