crime

Suspect sought in robbery, stabbing of Oak Street restaurant employee

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Police have identified a 53-year-old man as the suspect in the robbery and stabbing of an Oak Street restaurant employee, and are hoping the public can help locate him. The victim, an employee of a new restaurant on Oak Street near the corner of Dublin Street, was taking the trash out in an alleyway behind the building around 11:40 p.m. June 5 when he was confronted by a man with a knife who demanded his wallet, said NOPD Sgt. Perrin Gaines, who supervises violent-crime investigations in the Second District. The two began to struggle until the attacker cut the victim several times, then grabbed his wallet from his pants pocket and ran off on Dublin Street, Gaines said. After police released images of the struggle, a CrimeStoppers tip helped police identify 53-year-old Raymond Shaw as the suspect, Gaines said.

crime

Five wounded in four shootings around Uptown on Saturday and Sunday

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Five people were wounded in four separate shootings on Saturday and Sunday in Uptown neighborhoods from Annunciation Street through Central City and up to Airline Highway, New Orleans police said. Around 12:11 a.m. Saturday, June 17, a man in his 40s was walking in the 800 block of Felicity Street (near Annunciation) “when a black Mercedes Benz pulled up,” the report in that case states. “A known subject got out of the passenger’s side and opened fire striking the victim. He was taken to the hospital via EMS, listed in stable condition.” Around 12:55 a.m. Saturday, two men in their 20s were driving on Airline Highway near Palmetto Street when another vehicle pulled alongside and began shooting at them, the report in that case states.

crime

Man shot to death on South Carrollton; related shooting kills another man in Treme

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After one man was gunned down Thursday night on South Carrollton Avenue, another man was shot to death about 20 minutes later in a related shooting in Treme, New Orleans police said. The first shooting took place at 11:11 p.m. Thursday, June 16, near South Carrollton and Earhart Boulevard, according to police. Officers found “an unidentified male victim with multiple gunshot wounds to the body lying in the street,” the report states. “EMS rendered medical care and transported the victim to the hospital, [but] he died from his injuries.” The second shooting was at 11:33 p.m. at North Johnson and Bienville streets in the Treme area, police said.

city government

Seth Bloom promises new generation of City Council leadership, “a fresh start” for New Orleans

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Calling for a “fresh start” in the city of New Orleans, former School Board member Seth Bloom launched his City Council candidacy on Wednesday night, positioning himself as the vanguard of a new generation of civic leadership. Bloom was elected to the School Board in 2008 at age 30, and chose not to seek re-election after two terms last year. He said he was brought up in the world of public service, waving campaign signs and helping his mother and grandmother volunteer for charity events. A lack of opportunity in New Orleans for his peers meant many left the city when he was younger, Bloom said, but it is now time for his generation to step forward. “I’m part of an age group that left New Orleans in the 1990s in droves during a downturning economy and an upturn in crime — the sad exodus of New Orleans’ most promising, talented and forward thinking minds, until the events of Hurricane Katrina brought this brain drain to an end,” Bloom said in remarks before a crowded ballroom at the Martine Chaisson Gallery in downtown New Orleans.

city government

Danae Columbus: How does selectively inviting candidates to mayoral forums help New Orleans?

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Indivisible New Orleans, a group of about 150 New Orleans voters aligned with the national “Indivisible” movement that sprung up to oppose President Trump’s agenda, are holding the first mayoral candidate forum of this campaign season Saturday morning at the Unitarian Universalist Church in uptown New Orleans. Candidates LaToya Cantrell, Michael Bagneris and Desiree Charbonnet were invited. All three initially confirmed their participation. Charbonnet recently notified INO of a previously scheduled out of town trip to Washington, D.C. and will not be attending. When a friend of declared mayoral candidate Frank Scurlock asked via Instagram if Scurlock could participate, the organization responded, “We do not intend to include him on the panel.

city government

Kicking off mayoral bid, Cantrell proposes idea of electing New Orleans police chief separately

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As City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell kicked off her mayoral campaign Tuesday night in Broadmoor, she said she has been considering the idea of changing the structure of city government to make the chief of the New Orleans Police Department a separately elected position to increase law-enforcement accountability to the public. Cantrell began her first major campaign event by sharing a brief biography of herself, describing her arrival in New Orleans in 1990 as a student at Xavier University, her decision to move to Broadmoor after she married in 1999 and her growing activism in the Broadmoor Improvement Association before Hurricane Katrina and her efforts to save the neighborhood from becoming a depopulated “green dot” afterward. She was elected to the District B seat on the New Orleans City Council in 2012, and spearheaded efforts such as making restaurants smoke free while focusing on both public safety and housing. With the city’s murder rate this year erasing gains that Mayor Landrieu made midway through his term, crime has already been a prominent issue in the conversation around the fall mayor’s race. Cantrell said she knows the people in the neighborhoods are reporting the crimes they see to police, but aren’t getting satisfactory responses.

crime

One man robbed, another shot near Carrollton Avenue overnight, police say

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One man was robbed Tuesday afternoon, and another man was shot overnight within blocks of Carrollton Avenue, New Orleans police said. Shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, June 13, a man in his 30s was near Dublin and Edinburgh when he was confronted by three armed assailants who demanded his belongings, according to the initial NOPD report. “They made the victim get on the ground, took his computer and bag then fled,” the report states. Around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday, police were sent to the 7900 block of Olive Street (near Fern) for reports of gunfire and found “bullet casings and blood on the ground,” according to the report in that case. A man in his 20s then “showed up at an area hospital with gunshot wounds and refused to give the police any information,” the report states.

city government

District B candidates ask: Could legalizing marijuana balance New Orleans’ budget?

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In a city with such costly obligations that money to prosecute criminals has to be weighed against fixing roads, finding new revenue and holding down expenses are the only way to increase the services the city can afford. And one possible solution, two candidates for District B suggested Monday night, may be legalizing marijuana, reducing the cost of enforcing drug laws that overburden all elements of the criminal justice system and raising money for new projects through taxes. The two candidates — Catherine Love and Timothy David Ray — were speaking before the Faubourg Delachaise Neighborhood Association on Monday in one of the first public question-and-answer sessions with the candidates leading up to the October city government elections. Both gave an introduction and noted the unusual coincidence that both had lived in Germany — Love while working on a doctoral degree at Frei University, and Ray while teaching legal courses at Humboldt University in the same city. For the next half hour, the candidates then took a handful of questions from the neighborhood association members about crime issues and the city’s spending.

arts, books and music

Maple Street Book Shop extends final closing sale until June 30

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Maple Street Book Shop has extended its final closing sale until June 30, with all used books half off and all new books 20 percent off, and a new order of the shop’s legendary “Fight the Stupids” merchandise in stock. For more information, see the information from the shop below:

Maple Street Book Shop closing extended until June 30th! Saying Goodbye is hard, y’all! As we live out the final days of the store, we’ve decided to continue being open until the end of the month, through Friday, June 30th. Until then we will be continuing our Final Clearance Sale!