A shooting on a carnival parade route in New Orleans on Sunday night killed one man and wounded four other people, including a four-year-old girl, according to officials.
Authorities said they had arrested one suspect in the deadly quintuple shooting on a count of murder as well as a weapons charge.
The shooting occurred about 9.30pm local time near St Charles Avenue and Terpsichore Street, in front of an eatery and “just steps” from revellers who had congregated to watch the annual parade staged by the Krewe of Bacchus, the New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV reported.
Bacchus rolls annually on the Sunday before Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, which in Christian cultures marks the last day before Lent.
A male thought to be between the ages of 15 and 18 was killed, the New Orleans police chief, Michelle Woodfork, said during a press briefing Monday. A four-year-old girl, an 18-year-old man, a 22-year-old woman and a 24-year-old woman were also injured, and all had been released after being taken to hospital for emergency treatment, Woodfork added.
Woodfork called the shooting that marred the Bacchus parade “an isolated incident” that resulted from people having a conflict and at least one of them deciding that “the resolution … would be gunfire”.
Police officers arrested Mansour Mbodj, 21, at the scene of the shooting initially on just a count of illegal carrying of a gun. Though police made clear they Mbodj was involved in the circumstances leading to the gunfire, Woodfork said investigators had not immediately been able to determine exactly who had fired and whether there was more than one shooter.
But later Monday police announced that they had booked Mbodj with second-degree murder, saying video surveillance showed him shooting at the slain man.
In court documents obtained by the Guardian that explained why Mbodj first fell under investigators’ scrutiny, police said officers heard a dozen gunshots erupt at the corner of St Charles and Terpsichore before seeing the suspect running away. Mbodj was looking back, the documents said, holding “an unknown object in his right hand”, when an officer successfully ordered him to get on the ground.
Officers said they saw Mbodj lying next to a .40-caliber black pistol with its magazine partially emptied and handcuffed him.
Mbodj allegedly claimed that he ran when strangers shot at him and did not understand his constitutional rights before he was brought to jail, officers wrote in the records.
Under Louisiana law, Mbodj would face a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment if convicted of second-degree murder. Meanwhile, illegal carrying of a gun in the state is typically a misdemeanor calling for up to six months in prison and a maximum fine of $500, but those penalties are frequently enhanced in cases involving violence.
In addition to the pistol spotted near Mbodj when he was detained, officers recovered a second gun near the shooting, Woodfork said. Officers also recovered spent shell casings, court documents said.
One witness told WWL-TV that he heard at least a dozen shots ring out as attendees scrambled to flee the gunfire. Before the shooting, the witness said there were several confrontations around this same area that police intervened in.
“Everyone ran – everyone took cover,” Andrew Crawford told WWL-TV. “My whole family ducked. I kind of just hovered over my family, like the small children.”
New Orleans has seen gun violence at or near carnival festivities in prior years.
A 15-year-old girl died last year after being struck by a stray bullet several blocks from the Krewe of Endymion’s parade route on the Saturday before Mardi Gras, according to authorities.
Meanwhile, a man was shot dead during a fight alongside a parade on St Charles on Mardi Gras in 2018, less than a mile away from the spot where Sunday’s shooting occurred.
There was another mass shooting in Tennessee earlier on Sunday. One person was killed, and 10 others wounded early on Sunday morning, in two Memphis shootings that might be connected, according to CNN.
It’s unclear whether there were multiple shooters. Authorities said the motive is not yet known, USA Today reported.
On Friday, a man shot and killed six people – including his former wife and stepfather – in Arkabutla, Mississippi. The suspected shooter, identified by authorities as Richard Dale Crum, opened fire across several locations in the rural community of less than 300 people.
The New Orleans, Memphis, and Arkabutla mass shootings are among at least 82 mass shootings recorded in the US so far this year as Monday morning, averaging more than one daily, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The non-profit defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are injured or killed, not including any shooters.
Joe Biden renewed calls for more substantial gun control legislation after the Mississippi shootings, saying in a statement: “Enough.”
“Thoughts and prayers aren’t enough,” the president said, employing the phrase often used by gun rights advocates in the wake of mass shootings. “Gun violence is an epidemic and Congress must act now. We need – need – commonsense gun law reforms.”
