New Orleans police have released images of a suspected gunman in Sunday's shootings that wounded 19 people at a local Mother's Day parade. Authorities are asking for the public's help to identify the man, one of three suspects in the shootings.
In the surveillance camera video released by police Monday morning, a series of still images shows a large crowd of people filling the street as they march through the intersection of Frenchmen and North Villere streets in the Seventh Ward.
Photographed from an elevated angle, the images show people crowding through the intersection in the background, while in the foreground a man stands alongside a house's steps.
Although it's hard to determine the timing of events from the stop-motion effect of the images that were released, the man runs toward the crowd, raising his arm in the air. As he does so, people flee the intersection, leaving the man standing nearly alone on the asphalt, with several injured people lying on the ground.
The released video has no accompanying audio. Police say they found the footage after canvassing the area. A "full contingent" of police officers had been marching with the parade, according to department spokesman Garry Flot.
"When the end of the Parade reached North Villere and Frenchmen at about 1:47 p.m., shots were fired with different guns," Flot said in a statement issued Monday. "Immediately after the shooting our officers saw three suspects running from the scene. One suspect was seen running on Frenchmen towards North Claiborne then unknown."
Police believe "the three gunmen likely worked together, and at least two different weapons were used," reports NOLA.com, citing New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas. "One of the suspects is described as a man between 18 and 22 years old with short hair and wearing a white shirt and blue jeans."
The shootings occurred in the early afternoon Sunday near the Treme neighborhood, as hundreds of people walked in a "second-line" procession — a New Orleans tradition that's essentially a party and parade all in one.
No deaths have been reported, and most of those injured seem to have been grazed by bullets. Police say some victims were hit after bullets ricocheted off other surfaces.
"Police said 10 adult men, seven adult women, a 10-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were struck by bullets," NOLA reports. "Both of the 10-year-old victims had graze wounds to the body and were in good condition. A man and a woman were reported to be in surgery Sunday evening."
Urging anyone with knowledge of the case to come forward, police said that information leading to an arrest could bring a $10,000 reward.
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