"This not a morning that we ever want to see."
Those were the opening words of New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson as he announced that NOPD officers discovered the body of one of their colleagues inside a home in Gentilly.
According to Ferguson, Third District officers responded to a call for a welfare check on Touro Street near Selma Street around 8:40 a.m. Tuesday. Ferguson says when investigators arrived, they found a woman dead of a gunshot wound. Those investigators then discovered the the deceased was one of their colleagues.
"I won't give her name because we are in the process of informing the family," Superintendent Ferguson said during a briefing. "I just left the mayor at the mother's residence. I spoke to the mother and the father an informed them of what we're investigating. What I can say at this time is that (she's) a 36-year-old female who's been on the job for as many as nine years."
Ferguson says the NOPD is investigating the case as an unclassified death until investigators can confirm what exactly happened. However, he said homicide investigators, specifically the cold case division, will take the lead in investigating the case.
He also asked for prayers for the officer, her family, and the surviving officers of the NOPD.
"It's a bad day," Ferguson said. "I just ask that you keep our officers and this community and this family in your prayers. We'll continue to give the support to the family and especially to our officers as they go through this grieving moment.
This is the second NOPD employee to be killed in a homicide in as many weeks. Last week, Yolanda Dillon, a civilian employee of the department, was stabbed to death while driving for Uber.
