Norbert Housey, 28, was shot and killed on Interstate 10 in New Orleans East on Oct. 20, 2021, in a case that remains unsolved five years later. Police said the shooting happened before his vehicle was involved in a three-car crash, and two other people hurt in the wreck were taken to the hospital.
Housey suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead after being taken to the hospital, according to nola.com. The outlet reported that two other people involved in the wreck were injured and hospitalized, though their conditions had not yet been released at the time. Crimestoppers says Housey was driving eastbound on I-10 when his vehicle was struck with gunfire near the Crowder Boulevard exit, while WDSU reported that a call about the subsequent three-vehicle accident on westbound I-10 at Morrison Road came in at 6:17 p.m. that evening.
WDSU also reported that police said the shooting happened prior to the crash near eastbound I-10 at Crowder Boulevard, matching the general sequence of events even as the precise location details diverge between accounts. As WGNO reports, NOPD responded to the three-car accident on I-10 and found a man fatally shot inside one of the cars involved.
A Pattern on New Orleans Highways
Housey's death wasn't an isolated event on the city's elevated roadways. WDSU reported at the time that the shooting marked the 18th interstate shooting in New Orleans since the start of 2021, a grim tally that would only grow in the years that followed. The same report noted that police suspected some of these cases stem from chance encounters that escalate into road rage, while others may be rooted in feuds that boil over when rival parties happen to cross paths on the highway, per nola.com's earlier reporting.
The numbers kept climbing after Housey was killed. At least 30 people were shot on New Orleans interstates and highways in 2022, including seven fatal shootings, according to nola.com's analysis of police information. The outlet separately reported at least 26 interstate shootings that year, compared with just five in 2018 — a stark illustration of how much more dangerous the city's highways had become in just a few years.
A separate shooting on Jan. 15, 2022, killed a man and wounded a woman on I-10 East near Esplanade Avenue, nola.com reported, underscoring that Housey's case was part of a wider wave rather than a one-off tragedy. By 2023, the trend showed no signs of slowing. At least 12 people had been shot on a New Orleans interstate that year as of June 1, and two of those victims had died, according to a report from metrocrime.org. That same report found that nine of the 10 interstate shootings logged in New Orleans in 2023 had occurred on I-10 specifically, the same stretch of highway where Housey lost his life.
Case Remains Open as Reward Offer Stands
Crimestoppers lists Housey's case among its open homicide investigations, and the organization states that information leading to an arrest and indictment in a homicide may qualify for a reward of up to $5,000. Tipsters are asked to contact Crimestoppers directly and submit an anonymous tip at (504) 822-1111.
The killer has not been found, and it remains unclear whether the investigation is still active. Five years after Housey was gunned down around 6 p.m., his case stands as one marker among dozens in a surge of interstate violence that peaked with 26 reported shootings on the city's elevated roadways through late October of one particularly violent year, according to nola.com — described at the time as the most in at least a decade.
