crime

NOPD: Victim shot in apparent Uptown robbery attempt

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Police found a man inside his truck on an Uptown street suffering from two gunshot wounds early Sunday morning, apparently the latest victim in a rash of robberies at gunpoint. Police found the man at 5:20 a.m. Sunday while responding to a report of a shooting in the 4500 block of South Saratoga, said Lt. Mike Montalbano of the NOPD Second District investigative unit. The victim remains in critical condition, Montalbano said, but investigators believe the shooting was during a robbery attempt. The shooting took place within blocks of three robberies at gunpoint that occurred during a one-hour time span Wednesday night, and amid a broader trend of armed robberies Uptown that now numbers more than a dozen in two weeks. Police have made tentative links between several of the cases, based on approximate descriptions from the victims, but have yet to identify suspects.

court

Traffic stop leads to former murder suspect’s arrest in Milan on gun charge

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A convicted drug dealer charged but never found guilty in separate murder and attempted-murder cases in the 1990s is now back in jail after a patrol officer found him with two guns this weekend during a traffic stop in the Milan neighborhood, police said. Shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, a member of the NOPD task force assigned to the Milan neighborhood stopped a vehicle at the corner of Delachaise and South Saratoga and smelled marijuana when he approached its window, said Lt. Mike Montalbano of the NOPD Second District investigative unit. When the officer asked the driver to step outside the car, the driver ran off, throwing away a gun as he ran, Montalbano said. The officer caught up to him, arrested him and then found a second gun inside the car, and the driver, identified as 35-year-old Cleveland M. Alfred, claimed ownership of both firearms, Montalbano said. Alfred is charged with illegal possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a stolen firearm, flight from an officer, expired license plate, suspended driver’s license and no insurance, according to booking records at the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office.

crime

Police: Attempt to ditch gun leads to new charges for felon

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A 21-year-old with a prior felony drug conviction was charged  with possessing a gun stolen from a car in January after officers saw him trying to get rid of it last week, police said. Regis Grimes, 21, pulled a gun from under his shirt and tossed it into an alley near an abandoned house at 3519 S. Saratoga St. in the Milan neighborhood on Monday, Aug. 23, while officers were watching, according to a New Orleans Police Department news release. When officers found the gun, they determined that it had been stolen in January in an auto burglary at A.P. Tureaud and North Tonti streets, the release states.