Police seek witnesses, cell phone video after gunfire during a parade in New Orleans kills 2

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Deadly shootings at a signature New Orleans cultural event — a neighborhood “second-line” parade — left authorities pleading with witnesses to come forward with information or cell phone video while seeking to reassure the public that the weekend bloodshed was an aberration in a city where violent crime has been going down.

Gunfire broke out twice along the route of the Sunday afternoon parade, police said. Gunfire injured 10 people the first time. Two people died and three more were injured in the second incident. The 13 injured were all reported in stable condition Monday, Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.

Still unclear Monday morning was whether the two incidents were related, and the motives behind them.

City Council member Eugene Green implored witnesses to come forward during a news conference Monday morning. “There were a lot of phones, being used on yesterday,” Green said. “There are a lot of people who saw what happened.”

Second-line parades — so-called because observers often follow behind band members to form a second line of marchers — are a longstanding tradition in New Orleans. Sunday’s parade was an annual event organized by the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club. Other times, second-lines are quickly organized to honor a fallen local or national celebrity. Most recently, the memory of local longtime news anchor Eric Paulson, who died of cancer earlier this year, was honored with a second-line.

Council member Oliver Thomas hailed the parade tradition as an important part of city culture and a driver of commerce, stressing that the violence that broke Sunday had nothing to do with organizers or participants.

The gunfire came as the New Orleans Police Department and city and state officials have noted a reduction in violent, pandemic-era crime in New Orleans. Coincidentally, the nonprofit group Metropolitan Crime Commission released statistics showing a 49% drop in homicides in the city since 2022.

“Our city is moving in the right direction,” Green said. “This is a terrible setback relative to the families that experienced violence in this particular event. But second-lines and our culture are important in our city. Green said Sunday’s parade was the 26th by the Nine Times social club. “And I’m looking forward to the 27th and more.”

Still, Sunday’s violence brought to mind other neighborhood parades marred by shootings, notable among them a Mother’s Day 2013 mass shooting that wounded 19.

Thomas touted the cultural and economic importance of the parades, and the safety, but also decried reports that many along the route were brandishing guns.

“We have no business with guns at a parade ground or in our entertainment areas,” said Kirkpatrick, a frequent critic of a state law allowing carrying of concealed weapons without a permit.