Gunfire erupted outside KIPP East Community Primary School in New Orleans East on October 15 as parents sat waiting in the carpool lane, and by Thursday night two men were booked into jail on charges that include assault by drive-by shooting and firearm possession in a firearm-free zone. No one was hurt, but the shooting happened close enough to dismissal that witnesses photographed the suspect vehicle as it passed the school grounds.
According to NOLA.com, parents were waiting in the carpool lane at about 3:21 p.m. that Thursday to pick up children when a blue Honda Accord drove past the school. Per the arrest affidavit, a man with dreadlocks was hanging out of the front passenger side holding a large assault rifle, and someone in the vehicle opened fire as it passed the campus. The vehicle then stopped near the 6500 block of East Hermes Street, where a man inside fired again, striking a parked 2011 Buick before the occupants fled, the affidavit states.
That stretch of East Hermes Street sits directly adjacent to KIPP East's campus along Virgilian Street, according to WWL Louisiana, underscoring how close the second round of gunfire landed to the dismissal activity just minutes earlier. KIPP East, located at 6519 Virgilian Street, was established in 2014 and serves students from pre-kindergarten through 8th grade as part of the KIPP New Orleans Schools charter network.
Witnesses, Cameras and a Traffic Stop Break the Case
Multiple people called police to report the gunfire, and one witness managed to photograph the vehicle and its occupants as they passed the elementary school, per NOLA.com. Surveillance cameras also captured the incident. Responding officers later spotted a car matching the suspect vehicle's description and pulled it over for impeding the flow of traffic, identifying the drivers as 22-year-old Kendrick Allison and 36-year-old Edward Stewart.
Allison allegedly tested positive for gunshot residue, the outlet reported. Officers recovered guns, cash and illicit drugs from inside the Accord following the stop, the station's report adds, bolstering the weapons and narcotics charges against both men.
Charges Stack Up for Both Defendants
Allison was booked into the Orleans Justice Center late Thursday on charges of assault by drive-by shooting, aggravated criminal damage to property, firearm possession in a firearm-free zone and illegal use of weapons, records showed. He also faces a warrant and a charge of possession with intent to distribute tapentadol, a synthetic opioid painkiller sold under the brand name Nucynta that the Federal Register classifies as a Schedule II controlled dangerous substance due to its high abuse potential.
Stewart faces the same counts as Allison, plus an additional charge of possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the same NOLA.com report. Louisiana law defines a firearm-free zone as any school campus and the area within 1,000 feet of its boundaries, and state statute classifies unauthorized firearm possession in a school zone as a felony punishable by up to five years at hard labor, per the City of New Orleans. A parallel federal law, the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990, similarly bars unauthorized individuals from knowingly possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of school grounds.
No Bond Pending Dangerousness Hearing
Both men were ordered held without bond pending a dangerousness hearing, NOLA.com reported. Magistrate Commissioner Robert Blackburn is set to set bond for Allison and Stewart Wednesday in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. Under Article 316 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure, judges weighing pretrial detention must consider factors including the violence of the alleged offense, the weight of the evidence, a defendant's criminal record and the threat posed to community safety, according to the Public Affairs Research Council, before issuing a hold without bond.
A Neighborhood Already on Edge
The shooting lands in a part of New Orleans East where residents have grown accustomed to bursts of gun violence even as citywide numbers trend down. NOPD data for the first quarter of 2026 showed a 67% drop in homicides and a 57% decrease in nonfatal shootings compared with the same period in 2023, per NOPD News. Yet a Metropolitan Crime Commission bulletin published October 12 found that NOPD's Seventh District, which covers Pines Village and New Orleans East, continues to see concentrated clusters of nonfatal shootings and armed robberies.
Pines Village has logged a string of violent incidents in 2026 alone, including an August shooting on Morrison Road that hospitalized a 16-year-old boy and a May shooting on Downman Road that left a woman with a graze wound to the head, Hoodline has reported. Taken together, those incidents help explain why gunfire near an elementary school carpool lane has triggered such alarm in the neighborhood, even as the intended target of the shooting and the ownership of the struck Buick remain unclear.
