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Mothers in New Orleans wept on Mother’s day as unidentified gunmen opened fire on participants in a Mother’s Day parade. Even though a full contingent of policemen were present at the parade, and most say they saw three people running away after the shootings that left 19 people including two children injured, little seems to be forthcoming about the description of the shooters.
The only information provided to the media by NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas was that possibly there were three gunmen who probably worked together, and may be used two different weapons. One of the shooters is thought to be between 18 and 22 years of age and wearing a blue jeans and a white shirt.
Edward Buckner, the president of the organization conducting the parade said, “I can’t tell you what the gunmen looked like. I was busy parading … Everyone was just busy having a good time.”
However, Buckner made a slip when describing the shooting and said, “It’s not because of the associated pleasure clubs that this type of terrorist act happens …”
The FBI immediately took the pains to distinguish the shootings from an act of terrorism and termed it as an incident of “street violence.” Mary Beth Romig, the spokeswoman for FBI in New Orleans told Associated Press that “It’s strictly an act of street violence in New Orleans.”
However, it was not one gang fighting another, but multiple shooters pumping bullets into a crowd of revelers, who were celebrating the hard work of American mothers. There was no other intention but to cause terror and violence for the sake of violence – which according to the FBI clearly makes the shooting different from an act of terrorism.
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While the children, a 10-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy are said to be in good condition, at least three adults are undergoing surgery, though most of the rest shot at have had minor injuries.
The shooting took place on Frenchmen Street in the 7th Ward at about 1:45 p.m. on Sunday.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landreu told reporters on Sunday, it was “a very tragic day for us again in New Orleans, especially on Mother’s Day … We have mothers that were shot, sisters that were shot, little children that were shot.”
The shot were fired at the “second line” an informal parade tradition in New Orleans. There has been a number of previous shootings at second lines, and one of the wounded, Deborah ‘Big Red’ Cotton, had earlier defended the tradition in the Gambit, a local New Orleans publication. In 2010, Cotton had written, “when you have a society that parades 40 weekends a year, there’s bound to be a murder that falls on the same day and possibly within the vicinity of the parade.” She referred to shootings on second-line parades that took place in 2006, and another in 2010 in which one woman was killed.
Even though shootings on second-line parades in New Orleans seem frequent enough for journalists to write opinion pieces on them, NOPD spokeswoman Remi Braden said in an email, “This is an extremely unusual occurrence, and we’re confident that we will make swift arrests.” She was echoed by NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas who said, “Obviously, this is an unusual circumstance … We have second lines that occur in this city virtually every week at this time of the year.”
