Gunfire erupted on New Orleans' popular Bourbon Street, injuring four people on Saturday night, with Mardi Gras only days away. No arrests were immediately reported, but police said they were seeking three men who fled the scene, according to the Associated Press. The city has been beleaguered by crime, and much of it is gun-related violence, which has soared since Hurricane Katrina hit the area in 2005.
According to reports and a video taken by a witness and released by police on Sunday reveal shots ringing out on Bourbon Street. Police confirmed in an e-mail that an argument involving one of the victims led to shooting. According to the AP, the video showed "two men leaving the argument and returning with a third, then approaching the victim and shooting. A man whom police identified in a statement as one of the perpetrators move [d] deeper into the crowd," and extended his arms as gunfire began. The wounded were two men and two women, said New Orleans Police Spokesman Frank B. Robertson.
In 2011, sixteen people were shot and at least two killed on Halloween. One of those killed - a 25-year-old local resident - was shot near the famous Chris Owens nightclub, about a block away from Saturday's incident. Police placed Saturday's shooting in the 400 block of Bourbon Street, according to the AP.
"Everybody immediately started running and the cops immediately started running toward where people were running from. I was with a group of about seven people and at that point, we all just kind of grasped hands and made our way through the crowd as soon as possible," Patrick Clay, 21, a Louisiana State University student told The Times Picayune, and reported by the AP.
The Associated Press also said that just a few hours after the shooting, New Orleans was back in "full party mode, packing the block amid a heavy police presence." Mardi Gras, on Tuesday, is scheduled to go ahead without any real interruption.
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