Infant, five others shot on Mardi Gras parade route
An infant and at least five other people were shot along a parade route packed with Mardi Gras revelers, police said. Two suspects were in custody and the victims were recovering.
An infant and at least five other people were shot along a parade route packed with Mardi Gras revelers, police said. Two suspects were in custody and the victims were recovering.
The shootings happened near the Garden District after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. Hundreds of truck floats that follow the parade were passing when gunfire broke out.
"It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter," said Toni Labat, 29, a window company manager. She was with her two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.
"Everybody was petrified. They hit the ground, the floats stopped, everybody on the floats ducked," Labat said.
Labat said one man dragged himself on the ground screaming for help after being wounded and another man was gasping for air and bleeding from his mouth.
Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims were taken to local hospitals. The infant was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt, Young said.
Dr Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon who was with a gathering of doctors near the shooting site, ran over to tend to one man who he said had been shot in the abdomen.