New Orleans Bourbon Street shooting: Police looking for man in video

New Orleans police have posted video of a person of interest in Sunday’s shooting on Bourbon Street, and a 10th victim has come forward.

The person shown in the surveillance footage is not currently a suspect, but his behavior looks suspicious, a police spokesman said. The footage consists of two separate clips. One shows what looks like a man with short, dark hair putting on a hat. The other shows him without the hat and with a backpack looking over his shoulder and hurrying away. Police said both clips are of the same person. They urged anyone who recognized him to contact them.

The shooting took place about 2:45 a.m. Sunday on Bourbon Street and involved “two young men, both armed with firearms, who chose to settle a dispute between themselves without care for anyone else,” Police Supt. Ronal W. Serpas told reporters. They exchanged gunfire, hitting bystanders, he said. Bourbon Street, a hot spot for tourists, is full of bars, restaurants and shops.

Police initially reported nine people were injured, but about 12 hours after the gunfire, another man told police that he had been shot as well. The 39-year-old had a minor chest injury and refused treatment, police said.

Five victims are still in the hospital. One is a 21-year-old woman in critical condition, and the others are two men and two women in stable condition, police said. Four other victims were treated and released.

Kai Robinson, 25, a banker from Trenton, N.J., said she and several relatives were on Bourbon Street when the shooting took place: Some cousins were in a karaoke bar on that block, her brother was at an outdoor ATM nearby, and she was ordering food with two other family members at Willie’s Chicken Shack on the next block.

“Four people ran into the restaurant and shoved me into the counter as they were attempting to duck behind the counter,” she told the Los Angeles Times in an email. “My heart sank because I initially had no idea where [my] brother was.”

When she left the restaurant, she saw a trail of blood on the pavement, she said. “It was quite a bit of blood,” she recalled. “We see two people laying in the street. One girl is on her back surrounded by people receiving CPR with her shirt ripped open. And another guy is laying on his stomach with a clear gunshot wound to his butt.”

Dave Minsky, a freelance journalist, said he was spending time with friends at the nearby Boondock Saint bar when he heard shots.

“My immediate reaction was just to run out the door,” he told The Times. “It looked like there was a gunman. It was so quick. He ran right by me.” That man, he said, was followed by two other men, and then police hot on their heels.

“There was a person lying in the street,” he said. “I didn’t see any gunshots, any blood, so I think she just fainted.”

Then he witnessed a more serious-looking injury. “I saw a pool of blood and followed the trail back to a person,” he said. “It was a girl who got shot in the face.”

New Orleans is set to host the Essence music festival Thursday through Sunday, and the Police Department plans to post extra officers in the French Quarter, which includes Bourbon Street, during that time. State troopers will also be on hand.

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