Nine-year-old Leelani Brooks, who was shot during a neighborhood gunfight in Algiers, has been declared brain dead. According to WWLTV, she was fleeing the gunfire on Monday afternoon when she was struck. Doctors informed the family that there were no further medical options and that she would not survive her injuries.
NOLA.com reports that 19-year-old Evans Rogers, the suspected gunman, was arrested following a standoff at a La Quinta Inn in Gretna. Rogers had reportedly been involved in a previous shooting two weeks earlier and was already wanted by authorities, according to an arrest affidavit.
Rogers now faces several charges. In connection with the Algiers incident, he has been charged with attempted second-degree murder. In Jefferson Parish, he is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, with a bond set at $150,000. However, he is not expected to be released due to additional charges and a parole violation, according to FOX 8 Live.
NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said in a statement reported by NOLA.com, "She had run upstairs to seek safety with her family, and she was in the process of actually picking up her little sibling — she was holding that little sibling to protect that little sibling when she was shot in the head."
