5 Young Men Slain in New Orleans

Five teenagers were shot to death in New Orleans early Saturday in a brazen crime that has shaken the city and police as returning residents struggle to regain their footing after Hurricane Katrina.

Police said the young men, ages 16 to 19, were sprayed with bullets while sitting in a sport utility vehicle in the working-class Central City neighborhood, which is notorious for drug trafficking.

The victims’ names had not been released.

The incident follows a rash of crimes just west of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish, one of seven parishes that make up the New Orleans metropolitan area.

The shootings underscore what many here fear: Violent crime is making a comeback along with displaced residents.

Police statistics show 52 homicides in the city since Jan. 1, half as many as during the same period last year -- but the population is much smaller. Katrina, which hit on Aug. 29, scattered more than half of the city’s 450,000 residents across the country.

New Orleans Police Capt. John Bryson, commander of public affairs for the department, said that investigations into the shootings of the young men -- three 19-year-olds, a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old -- were ongoing and that any preliminary police statements were speculative.

“It appears to be either a retaliatory murder or drug-related or both,” said Bryson, former commander of the police district that covers Central City.

“Whoever the perpetrator or perpetrators were who carried out this heinous crime, they meant for every one of these individuals to be dead. Believe me, they were not trying to scare them.”

A semiautomatic weapon was used to fire multiple rounds, the police captain said.

Several gun casings were found at the scene.

Bryson said the crime scene indicated that one 19-year-old had gotten out of the car when confronted. “He received a single gunshot wound to the head and fell where he was shot,” Bryson said.

“The weapon was fired into the vehicle, fatally wounding the other four,” Bryson said.

The victim in the front passenger seat managed to get out of the car, and collapsed about 100 feet away. He was taken to the hospital with four gunshot wounds and died in surgery, Bryson said.

The car was found smashed against a utility pole at the corner of Danneel and Josephine streets.

Bryson said speculation that the homicides were drug-related stemmed from Central City’s reputation for illicit drug activity.

Police recently made several arrests there, he said.

The young men were in the area at 4 a.m., and “that’s not normal,” Bryson said.

“None of the victims lives there.”

No weapons or narcotics were recovered from the crime scene, police said.

“But that doesn’t mean they weren’t there,” Bryson said. “A lot of the time when we arrive on the scene, the perpetrator or perpetrators

“We’re only speculating at this point.”

Located near New Orleans’ central business district, Central City is characterized by rental properties and close-standing shotgun-style houses. Many buildings had fallen into disrepair long before Katrina flooded much of the neighborhood.

Some residents and business owners have returned to rebuild, and access to rental property has attracted many newcomers whose property in other parts of the city was destroyed, neighbors here said.

Carol Bebelle, director of the Ashe Cultural Arts Center, about a mile from where the shootings took place, said word of the slayings arrived that morning with the postmaster.

She said she and other business owners were concerned that the news would keep customers away from businesses struggling to recover from Katrina.

“When we started eight years ago, the chore was to convince people that it was safe to come here,” Bebelle said. “Now our fear is we may find ourselves back to square one.

“To have Central City featured in this series of sequential violent episodes is not good for what we’re trying to do for our community.”

A decade ago, New Orleans was the nation’s murder capital.

Bryson said statistics showed that overall crime had actually decreased in New Orleans.

Still, there were 13 homicides in April, and there have been 22 since May.

And neighboring Jefferson Parish has experienced a rash of violence.

A sheriff’s deputy was killed and two others were injured in recent weeks.

“The horrifying thing is it’s happening back-to-back,” Bryson said, adding that the most recent slayings were particularly demoralizing because they came on the eve of Father’s Day. He said they had “taken a toll” on many of his officers.