NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Police said two people were killed and five others wounded, including a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, in a shooting Sunday in the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood ravaged by Hurricane Katrina that has struggled with crime.
The children and another victim were in critical condition, and two other people were stable, police spokesman Frank Robertson said. He didn’t immediately release any other information, including a possible motive for the shooting.
The Lower Ninth, a predominantly black neighborhood less than 5 miles from the bustling tourist district of the French Quarter, was overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina’s floods in 2005. It has been one of the slowest parts of the city to recover because many homeowners couldn’t afford insurance.
In a separate, unrelated spate of violence, a 20-year-old man shot a friend Sunday morning inside a hotel room at the edge of the Quarter, then killed himself after a three-hour standoff with police, authorities said.
The shootings were the latest in a city dependent on tourists. In June, two men exchanged gunfire on Bourbon Street, killing one person and wounding nine others.