Almost two dozen people including two 10-year-old children have been injured after as many as three gunmen opened fire at a ‘second line’ of a parade on Mother’s Day in New Orleans.
The wounded included a boy and a girl, both 10 years old.
Two people have undergone surgery. Many of the victims have suffered grazes and most of the wounds are not life-threatening.
FBI spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.
“It’s strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans,” she said. “The southern city has one of the highest violent crime rates in the US.”
Officers saw three people running from the scene immediately after gunshots from “maybe two different types of weapons” rang out, said New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas.
He branded the attack as “selfish” and vowed to make swift arrests.
“I think what frustrates all of us is the selfishness of some people, and I think what frustrates all of us is that the great culture of this city sometimes stumbles a bit because of the selfish behaviour of some people,” he said.
He added: “We’ll get them. We have good resources in this neighbourhood.”
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged witnesses to come forward.
“These kinds of incidents will not go unanswered. Somebody knows something. The way to stop this violence is for you all to help,” he said.
As many as 400 people were taking part in the street parade but only about half were in the immediate area of the gunfire, which erupted at the junction of Frenchmen and North Villere Streets.
Officers were interspersed with the revellers, which is routine for such events.
The procession, known as a ‘second-line’ parade in which people dance down the street, often following a brass band, was organised by a social club called The Original Big 7.
The group was founded in 1996 at a housing project, according to its MySpace page.
The area where the shooting happened is a mix of low-income and middle-class homes, some boarded up.
As of last year, the neighbourhood’s population was about 60% of its level before Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.
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