UPDATE (July 30, 10:30 a.m.): New Orleans police said Sunday’s deadly shooting may have related to gang violence.
One of the three people killed in the shooting, a man, is believed to have been the intended target of the attack, police said, The Associated Press reported.
The two suspects, who have not been identified, remain at large.
Earlier:
A manhunt is underway in New Orleans for two suspects who police say fired “indiscriminately” at a crowd on Saturday night, killing at least three people and injuring several others.
New Orleans Police Chief Michael Harrison said two individuals wearing hooded sweatshirts opened fire at a daiquiri shop located in the 3400 block of Claiborne Avenue, about three miles from the city’s famed French Quarter.
Harrison said the suspects, armed with a long rifle and a handgun, “appeared to fire indiscriminately” at a “large crowd,” though they “stood over one individual and fired more than once at that person” before fleeing on foot, The Times-Picayune reported.
“This is an extremely tragic incident,” Harrison said at a press conference early Sunday.
Harrison said two men and a woman died in the shooting. Seven other victims — five men and two women — were injured, at least one of them critically. No further details were immediately available about the victims.
The Times-Picayune described a bleak scene in the aftermath of the attack. “Sounds of shouts and crying were heard throughout the chaotic scene late Saturday and into Sunday,” the paper said.
The city’s mayor, LaToya Cantrell, condemned the violence in a statement and vowed to “dedicate every resource necessary to ending this horror and seeing justice done.”
“I speak for everyone in our City when I say we are disgusted, we are infuriated, & we have had more than enough,” she wrote on Twitter. “Three more lives — gone. It has to end. It’s unacceptable anywhere.”
Police have asked anyone with information about the shooting to step forward ― and urged those affected by the attack to not “take matters into their own hands.”
“If violence is going to be the life you choose, then prison is going to be the price you pay,” Harrison said, adding that his officers would work tirelessly to ensure the perpetrators are promptly caught.
The New Orleans Advocate identified the site of the shooting as Jazz Daiquiris & Lounge, where the paper said gang killings have occurred in the past.
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It remained unclear whether Saturday’s attack was gang-related.