One shooting, three robberies, two attacks on homeless people reported overnight

One person was shot, three people were robbed, and two homeless people were attacked in a variety of incidents around the Uptown area on Wednesday evening, New Orleans police said.

The shooting took place around 6:15 p.m. Wednesday, May 24, in the 2500 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard, and began when a 30-year-old man sideswiped another vehicle while trying to park, according to the initial NOPD report. The owner of the parked vehicle tried to exchange information with the driver, but the driver had no insurance and tried to escape by shooting at the other vehicle’s owner, the report states.

Gunfire then broke out from someone else nearby, and the driver was hit in the mouth area, the report states.

The first robbery took place shortly after 9 p.m. in the 9300 block of Palm Street, the reports state. Three people — a woman in her 40s, a woman in her 20s, and a man in his 50s — were confronted by an armed man demanding their money, according to the report in that case.

The gunman took money from the younger woman’s purse, then forced the victims inside the home, the report states. He forced the two older victims to the floor, then took the younger woman to a back bedroom to search for more money, the report states. Finally, he took a gold chain from the man and left, the report states.

The second robbery took place around 11:30 p.m. in the 8300 block of Oleander Street, the reports state. A woman in her 20s was sitting on the steps of a home when a man approached, demanded money at gunpoint, took their purses and left with $120 in cash and a cell phone, the report states.

The third robbery took place around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, the reports show. A man in his 20s fell off his scooter in the 4500 block of Tchoupitoulas, and when he got up, a stranger asked him for a dollar, the reports state. “The male then produced a knife, went into the victim’s pockets and took his cell phone and fled,” the report states.

The first attack on a homeless person Wednesday evening took place shortly before 11 p.m. near the Interstate 10 onramp at South Carrollton Avenue, the report in that case states. Romel P. Gregorio, 32, approached a homeless man in his 30s and stabbed him with a pocket knife, the report states, and Gregorio was arrested on an aggravated-battery charge shortly afterward.

Finally, around 4:45 a.m. Thursday, a man in his 60s was sleeping outside in the 1000 block of Loyola Avenue “when an unknown subject kicked him in the face, took $200 out of his front pocket, and a cross chain, then fled,” the report in that case states.

Anyone with information is urged to call CrimeStoppers at 822-1111 to leave an anonymous tip that could be eligible for a cash reward.