A child was hospitalized after being shot outside the Forest Park Apartments on Behrman Highway in Algiers. The incident happened around 3:20 p.m. yesterday, and police found the child with at least one gunshot wound, as reported by WWL-TV. The child's condition remains undisclosed at the time of this reporting.
Residents like Earna Wells expressed their anguish over the violent events that seem to continually disrupt their community. "It hurts, it brings tears to my eyes, my heart is aching, I'm just hurt behind this because that's somebody's child. We can't come outside and play ball, you can't do anything out here," Wells told WDSU. This shooting is one of several recent violent episodes in the Algiers area, including last October's fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jyren Johnson at the same apartment complex, and a 9-year-old girl shot in May less than two miles away.
According to FOX 8 Live, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) also reported another victim in the shooting incident, who was initially taken to a hospital in Jefferson Parish before being transferred to University Medical Center. Details on this second shooting victim have not yet been released.
Community activist Michael Willis, CEO of the Help Other People Endure organization, speaks to the heart of the problem: "All kinds of possibilities he could have been. And we will never know," referring to Jyren Johnson, emphasizing the lost potential due to such senseless violence. Willis urges the community to use words to settle disputes, "rather than picking up arms." "We need to figure out what we will do as citizens to stop this endless gun violence," Willis told FOX 8 Live. Ongoing investigations by NOPD into Monday's double shooting hope to illuminate motives and lead to the apprehension of any perpetrators involved.
