FBI assisting with investigation into Camp Street shooting

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been assisting in what New Orleans police describe as a steadily progressing investigation into last week’s shooting and carjacking of a Camp Street resident, authorities say.

After police recovered the Cadillac SUV stolen in the carjacking from New Orleans East, crime lab technicians combed it “head to toe” for evidence and submitted both fingerprints and DNA to the State Police for analysis, said Sgt. Sabrina Richardson of the NOPD Sixth District persons-crimes unit. Often, auto thieves will burn the cars they take to hide the evidence, but Richardson said that the sharp eyes of a citizen who spotted the vehicle and reported its location to police allowed the investigators to recover the car in relatively good condition.

So far, investigators have not located any video that shows the gunmen in the area, Richardson said. Because so many homes are in the area, agents from the FBI have assisted in trying to find any cameras nearby that may have captured footage of the suspects passing, but so far none has turned up, Richardson said.

Meanwhile, although the victim is continuing to undergo surgery for the damage done by two gunshots to his chest, he is also regaining consciousness and talking, Richardson said. Overall, she said, the investigation continues to make progress on a daily basis.

“This case has consumed me and my entire unit,” Richardson said. “But every day, we are getting a little bit more.”

The Camp Street carjacking and the other three robberies reported that night occurred during a unusual rash of a nearly a dozen persons crimes in the Sixth District last week, including three other armed robberies, two simple robberies and two assaults. Of those cases, four are cleared by arrest (two of Tuesday’s robberies and the two simple robberies) and arrest warrants have been issued in four others (the two assaults and two other robberies), Richardson reported during the Sixth District’s weekly Comstat meeting Wednesday afternoon.