Two NOPD patrol units confer on Milan Street after speaking to witnesses near the Milan Lounge. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
(map via NOPD)
The two robberies on Milan Street on Tuesday night bring the total number of cases to five associated with a suspect wielding a double-barreled shotgun in the blocks around Napoleon Avenue and Prytania Street, New Orleans police said Wednesday.
The robberies now associated with the suspect include the following cases:
- Laurence Square park at Camp and Napoleon on Tuesday, Sept. 15;
- General Pershing at Perrier, then Prytania at Bordeaux, both on Friday, Sept. 18;
- Milan Street near Coliseum, and then near Camp, both Tuesday, Sept. 22.
In each case, the suspect was described as carrying a shotgun, police have said. No further details of his description have been released.
“It’s the exact same M.O., describing the double-barreled shotgun,” said NOPD Sixth District Commander Ronnie Stevens at the weekly meeting of ranking officers at NOPD headquarters.
The robberies straddle the boundary between the Second and Sixth Districts, which generally runs along Napoleon Avenue, and violent-crime detectives from both districts are collaborating on the investigation, Stevens said. Meanwhile, patrol units and all the extra personnel who are available are already assigned to patrol in the area, the ranking officers said.
“Last night, we were all out there actively working it,” said Second District Lt. Jennifer Dupree. “We’re going to be doing it again until we catch them.”
In the Second District, police are also actively working leads related to an unrelated cluster of robberies in the Carrollton area, Dupree said. The cases appear to be the work of a group of juvenile suspects known to police, Dupree said, and detectives are wrapping up that investigation and hope to make arrests soon, she said.
Police are also looking for suspects who have been identified in two other Uptown robberies. Calvin Thomas remains at large, wanted on charges related to last month’s robbery of the Circle K on Magazine Street, and Donald Williams is wanted on charges of robbing the Magnolia Discount on South Carrollton.
It would be helpful to know more details about how the robberies went down. A double barrel shotgun can be cut down shorter than a normal length, but is still not easy to conceal. Was this person wearing a coat or carrying a bag to conceal it? What criteria should we, the neighbors, be looking out for? Did he walk past, jump out, run up?
Per our neighborhood website, he has a bike but has not always used it. Has been photographed with a baseball hat and carrying the shot gun on his back in a white camp chair cover that appears dark in the photo.
Agreed…we need to know how to best protect ourselves. Should I not be walking my dogs past sundown? And do we really have NO description of the suspect??
A woman was robbed by a man with a shotgun September 5th on Marengo near Prytania. It must be the same guy. It happened around 11pm and was reported in Uptown Messenger.
Looks like he hit again last night on Danneel between Jena and Cadiz, according to a post on the Nextdoor website. Shotgun used. Must be same guy.
I live in the area. I can’t stand how little information is shared about these incidents! Tell me what to look out for so I can alert the police if I see something!! Not to mention, protect myself. Anyway- here is the word among the neighbors: Black male, about 6’2″/ 160 lbs, “knot-style” short dreads. He is carrying the shotgun around in an umbrella bag. After each incident, the area has had a lot of police patrolling for a few nights. Then I stop seeing as many police, and almost like clockwork, there is another incident.
According to our neighborhood message board: He gets around on a bike and carries the gun in a white chair bag. Light skinned African American with short dreads. (Our board has images from a security camera).
No description? Were they chinese? Amish? Scottish?
I haven’t been able to find out much about that case, but all I know so far is that it was a robbery with an “implied weapon” (which is why it didn’t make the daily offense logs). They haven’t linked it back to the shotgun cases.
I’ll try to find out more this week.