By Kaitlin Rust | WVUE | May 9, 2022
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The Orleans Parish District Attorney and New Orleans Police Chief respond for the first time to last Friday’s mass shooting, the second mass shooting in just a week’s time.
“This is excellent police work, working through the night, responding quickly,” DA Jason Williams said.
36-year-old Alex Madison was arrested and booked with second-degree murder Saturday morning after two men died and four others were injured in a shootout on Alcee Fortier Boulevard Friday afternoon.
“There are more arrests to be made in this case, specifically, so again, using CrimeStoppers as that voice, send that information to us anonymously,” Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said. “That is the key to this, getting the information to us, getting us the evidence so that we can provide a good case to the DA.”
Madison along with 27-year-old Ronnie Davis, who was arrested in connection to the Balcony Bar mass shooting, are just two of six violent crime arrests NOPD has made in the past week according to Ferguson.
“When you talk about mass shootings, that means a bunch of people were around, I mean, there’s a number of eyes, who saw the people who came in to do it,” Williams said, “Now, doesn’t mean you have to know the reason why, you don’t have to know where they went to, you don’t have to know everything, but you may know some, no matter how small.”
From the Friday of the Balcony Bar mass shooting to the Friday of the New Orleans East mass shooting, 26 people total were shot, and six died, contributing to our total of 104 homicides this year.
While we’ve seen 5-percent fewer shootings than last year, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, we are seeing more deaths, which the MCC says may indicate victims are less likely to survive gunshot injuries compared to last year.
Also, we’re seeing more mass shootings, meaning the total number of victims is far higher than the reported 166 incidents.
With these numbers steadily rising, there are efforts across all areas of public safety to make a difference.
Tomorrow the City Council’s Criminal Justice Committee meeting, we’ll hear from PANO on the retention and morale of officers as well as more on a final recommended plan to address violent crime.
There are also several ordinances tackling things like recommendations on a pay raise for officers, establishing staffing requirements for NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau, further restricting stunt driving, and restricting the budget of the Juvenile Justice Center.
Williams says he believes we are at a tipping point with more community members coming forward with critical information.
“Once we all take that stand there’s no place for the bad guys to hide,” Williams said.