Crime in New Orleans remains lower than last year, but stats tracked by the New Orleans Metro Crime Commission show that recently, one type of crime had a sudden increase.
When a 20-year-old man murdered a teenager in Algiers last week and then turned the gun on himself, it was the fifth murder-suicide in New Orleans in a month.
Criminologist George Capowich says even the best crime-fighting methods are unlikely to catch something like that before it happens.
"Something like that is not something that anyone can prevent," Capowich said.
Murder-suicide does not happen often, said Capowich, to the point that it is hard to develop good information about them, because the data are so scant.
"Homicide is rare compared to all other violent crimes and murder-suicide is even rare among homicides," he said.