Two dead, 10 injured in shootings near New Orleans parade route

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two people were killed and 10 others were injured in two separate shootings along a parade route and celebration on Sunday, authorities said. No immediate arrests were made.

Officers responding to reports of gunfire shortly after 3:30 p.m. on an avenue in the city’s St. Roch neighborhood found eight victims with gunshot wounds, according to a New Orleans Police Department news release. All eight were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Police later said a ninth injured person arrived at a hospital via a private car.

About 45 minutes later, police received another report of gunfire as partygoers crossed the Almonaster Avenue Bridge, just over half a mile (0.8 km) north. One person died at the scene and another died at a hospital, police said. A third victim was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and is in stable condition, police said.

No arrests have been announced and no suspect information has been released. The St. Roch neighborhood is located outside the city’s French Quarter, which is popular with tourists, and is located several blocks northeast of the neighborhood.

The Almonaster Bridge was closed in both directions during the investigation.

Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said investigators did not immediately know if the incidents were related.

“It was different types of approaches,” she said of the shootings, which took place in the area where a “second line,” a celebration after a parade, was taking place. The second line is a notification from NOLA.com

“It’s a wonderful event, and we want to keep it a wonderful event,” Kirkpatrick said NOLA.com.

It was the second major shooting in the South since gunfire marred a homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Nov. 10, killing one person and wounding 16 others, a dozen of them from gunfire, authorities said.