Detectives with the NOPD Second District confer after a shooting Monday afternoon on Hillary Street. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)
Police have identified two suspects in Monday’s shooting on Hillary Street in the Black Pearl, and say the incident appears unrelated to other recent shootings that have frightened residents there.
The victim was in the 300 block of Hillary Street shortly before 2 p.m. when a Chevrolet Avalanche pulled up to the block and a man got out and approached him, said Lt. Mike Montalbano of the NOPD Second District. The two got into an argument – apparently over money, witnesses told police – and then they began fighting, Montalbano said.
When the fight began, two other men – 24-year-old Nathaniel Williams and an unidentified third person – got out of the parked Avalanche and began attacking the victim as well, Montalbano said. Williams grabbed a skateboard from the ground nearby and hit the victim with it, and then the first man ran back to the Avalanche, pulled out a gun, and fired three times at the victim, hitting him twice, Montalbano said. All three attackers then got back into the SUV and left, Montalbano said.
The victim’s gunshot wounds were not life-threatening, but he has not cooperated with the investigation, Montalbano said. Williams is being sought by police on an aggravated-battery charge, and Second District detectives have identified the shooter and are pursuing a warrant for his arrest as well, but the process is moving more slowly than usual because both suspects are current residents of Alabama, Montalbano said.
Williams and the shooter were identified by witnesses as former residents of the neighborhood who moved away around the time of Hurricane Katrina, Montalbano said. Hillary Street has seen a handful of other shootings over the past year, but Montalbano said that those shootouts stemmed from a feud involving a different set of individuals unrelated to Monday’s case.
