NEW ORLEANS (TheBlaze/AP) — Two people were killed and five others wounded — including a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, who were in critical condition — in a shooting Sunday in the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood ravaged by Hurricane Katrina that has struggled with crime, police said.
One of the wounded adults also was in critical condition while the other two wounded adults were stable, police spokesman Frank Robertson said. He didn't immediately release any other information, including a possible motive for the shooting.
The Lower Ninth, a predominantly black neighborhood less than 5 miles from the bustling tourist district of the French Quarter, was overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina's floods in 2005. It has been one of the slowest parts of the city to recover because many homeowners couldn't afford insurance.
In a separate, unrelated spate of violence, a 20-year-old man shot a friend Sunday morning inside a hotel room at the edge of the Quarter, then killed himself after a three-hour standoff with police, authorities said.
An ambulance pulls up to the Westin Hotel in New Orleans on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014. (Image source: AP/ NOLA.com / The Times-Picayune, Julia Kumari Drapkin)
The hotel shootings happened in a 17th-floor room at The Westin on Canal Street, where four friends from the Lafayette area were staying together for the weekend, Robertson said.
Three of them came in from partying, waking the fourth about 5 a.m. The man returned to sleep only to be awakened by the plea, "Put the gun down." The 20-year-old, looking "dazed and confused under the influence of some unknown substance," was pointing a gun at their 24-year-old friend, Robertson said.
The older man kept asking his friend to put the gun down, Robertson said, but about 6:30 a.m., the 20-year-old man shot him in the chest. The other two ran for help, hearing a second shot as they fled.
A firefighter waits as New Orleans Police secure the scene, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014. (Image source: AP/NOLA.com / The Times-Picayune, Julia Kumari Drapkin)
When hotel staff let police into the room, the 20-year-old pointed a gun at them, Robertson said. The officers backed out and called a SWAT team.
After about three hours of negotiations, the 20-year-old man apparently shot himself and the SWAT team stormed in. He was pronounced dead about 9:55 a.m.
A SWAT team leaves the Westin Hotel on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014. (Image source: AP/NOLA.com The Times-Picayune, Julia Kumari Drapkin)
Rescue workers rushed the 24-year-old to a hospital where he was in stable condition Sunday evening.
Police have not identified the men. Lafayette is about 125 miles west of New Orleans.
Sunday's shootings were the latest in a city dependent on tourists. In June, two men exchanged gunfire on Bourbon Street, killing one person and wounding nine others.
This story has been updated.
