NOPD: River Garden arrests could quell violence

Collaboration between police and the residents of the River Garden apartments – site of the former St. Thomas public housing development – has led to the arrest of six people investigators say were responsible for a majority of recent gun violence there.

The 1800 block of St. Thomas Street, where a lone cluster of 1930s-era brick public-housing buildings remains amid blocks of pastel-colored redeveloped apartments, had seen an escalating wave of crime and gun violence over the last few weeks, noted officials in the NOPD Sixth District, which serves the Irish Channel, Garden District and Central City. Break-ins had given way to shoot-outs, leading to a fatal Jan. 2 shooting that investigators say may have been a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Keith Berry, 21, and his girlfriend were walking out of an apartment in the 1800 block of St. Thomas when three men emerged from an alleyway, opened fire on the couple and killed Berry, said Sgt. Sandra Contreras of the Sixth District persons-crimes division. Witnesses later identified one of the shooters as 18-year-old Rico Newman, who is now wanted on a murder charge in connection with Berry’s death.

Newman’s lengthy arrest history includes aggravated burglary, armed robbery, aggravated assault, illegal possession of a firearm, concealed weapons, aggravated criminal damage to property, resisting an officer and other charges. He is also wanted in connection to another case, the Nov. 23 shooting of a woman in the St. Roch area.

On Jan. 10, another volley of gunfire was reported in the same block, and detectives and patrol officers all rushed to the scene and arrived at the same time, Contreras said. An anonymous tipster told police which apartment the shooters were in, and when Contreras went in, she found six men and two women inside, gathered around the television, where they said they had been watching football all afternoon, she said.

Contreras said she asked if they would mind taking a gunpowder-residue test, and the apartment’s occupants agreed, repeating their assertion that they had not been involved in any shootings, she said. The tests, however, indicated traces of gunpowder on four of the men’s hands, Contreras said.

Meanwhile, another tipster outside told officers that after the shooting but before the police arrived, a woman had left the apartment under investigation with a purse, walked across the street into another apartment, and re-emerged minutes later without the purse, Contreras said. Police found this second apartment to be vacant, and inside was a purse with four guns (one stolen and one with an obliterated serial number) and nine bags of heroin, Contreras said.

The four men — Christian Allen, 20; Dontrell Beal, 26; Courtney Casey, 24; and Louis Cook, 20 — were all charged with illegal use of a weapon. Because Beal and Allen had previously pleaded guilty to felony drug charges, they were also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, which can result in several years in prison. The two women, Sade Madison and Takeisha Minor, were charged with possessing the heroin, a gun with narcotics, a stolen gun and a gun with an obliterated serial number.

After the afternoon’s rain stopped, police found 28 bullet casings just outside the apartment, Contreras said, and after further investigation, it appears the shooters thought they had seen Newman (the suspect wanted in the Jan. 2 slaying) driving by. Police do not believe Newman had actually been on the scene, however, suggesting the shooting could have been yet another case of mistaken identity.

Sixth District Capt. Bob Bardy praised the people who helped police locate the suspects and the guns, calling the helpful citizens “the real residents of River Garden” and noting that even property crimes nearby abated following the arrests. The Sixth District keeps in constant communication with the managers of the mixed-use, mixed income redevelopment, Bardy said, arguing that the only way it will be successful and safe is if those who abuse the concept can be swiftly evicted.

The historic public-housing buildings on St. Thomas were originally slated for conversion into offices or other non-residential space, but the shortage of affordable housing in the city and the creation of new federal tax credits following the destruction after Hurricane Katrina led developers to remodel and reopen them, winning praise from historic preservationists. Bardy, however, noted that all the recent crime has been at that precise location.

“When you do a development like this, I do not think you should keep any old buildings,” Bardy said. “They breed the old attitudes.”

The River Garden neighborhood will be the location of the Sixth District’s monthly anti-crime march for January, scheduled to start at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 26.