A map showing robberies reported in the Uptown area since Jan. 1 (via NOPD.com)

A wave of robberies and carjackings since the holidays may be feuling some of Uptown’s bloodier feuds, but police officials are hoping a number of recent arrests and ongoing investigations will slow the rapid pace of muggings.

More than a dozen armed robberies have been reported in the Uptown-based Second and Sixth police districts since Jan. 1, a pace of more than one a day so far this year. But arrests have been made in at least five of them with direct links to three others, police say.

“These apprehensions will slow the robberies,” said NOPD Sixth District Commander Bob Bardy during Thursday’s weekly meeting of his district’s ranking officers. Continue reading »

Police have released a sketch of the man who allegedly raped two women in the university area early Monday morning, and are seeking the public’s help identifying him.

The two women were walking near Palmer and South Robertson streets about 3 a.m. Monday when they were approached by a man “implying he had a weapon,” according to a NOPD news release. The man grabbed one of the women and threatened to harm her if the other did not do as he said, then forced both of them into an alley in the 6000 block of South Robertson where he sexually assaulted them, police said.

The suspect is described as a black man in his late teens or early 20s, roughly 5-foot-5 and 175 pounds, with an athletic build, dark complexion, a buzz haircut and a goatee, wearing a white T-shirt and denim jeans.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Vernon Haynes of the NOPD Special Victims Unit at 504-658-5523, or, to leave an anonymous tip that could be eligible for a cash reward, call CrimeStoppers at 822-1111.