A 26-year-old Algiers woman is facing two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of cruelty to a juvenile after New Orleans police say she tried to strangle two children. Keanttae Hill was booked following the alleged attack, and a magistrate commissioner had scheduled a hearing for Monday, Nov. 9, to weigh whether she should be held without bail.
According to nola.com, Hill was booked on two counts of attempted first-degree murder and two counts of cruelty to a juvenile. Magistrate Commissioner Jonathan Friedman had scheduled a hearing for Monday, Nov. 9, to consider a motion from the district attorney's office to hold Hill without bail, the outlet reported. The report notes that the relationship between Hill and the children has not been specified.
New Orleans police are working the case out of Algiers, and it is being handled by the department's Special Victims Division, according to WWLTV.com. Louisiana's criminal code, in an excerpt published by the Louisiana Legislature, describes an attempt as occurring when a person with specific intent does or omits an act for the purpose of, and tending directly toward, accomplishing the intended crime — though the full statutory language goes beyond what is captured in that excerpt.
Why Strangulation Is Considered So Dangerous
The New Orleans Family Justice Center describes strangulation as one of the most lethal forms of domestic violence and sexual assault, noting that unconsciousness may occur within seconds and death within minutes, according to the New Orleans Family Justice Center. The organization's training materials also cite findings from a study of 300 misdemeanor strangulation cases, underscoring how often the act shows up in lower-level charges even as it carries serious medical risk.
Mary Claire Landry, CEO of the New Orleans Family Justice Center and Hope Community Health Center, has said strangulation is becoming normalized, particularly on college campuses, and that some survivors believe they are giving consent to sexual choking, per WWLTV. Dr. Deborah St. Germain, a forensic nurse, has reported that a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old died from strangulation injuries, the station reported.
Local Data Carries Caveats
City health department figures cited by the City of New Orleans indicate that 323 individuals were charged with a strangulation-related crime in 2023, while a separate City of New Orleans report says 347 warrants were issued for strangulation-related crimes in 2024. Those are different measures — people charged versus warrants issued — and the available data does not establish that they are directly comparable or that they prove a year-over-year increase.
A separate retrospective review of 1,396 medical forensic examination records from 2017 to 2023, published by PubMed Central, identified 243 nonfatal strangulation cases, or 17.4% of the records reviewed, with reported prevalence rising from 13.3% in 2017 to 22.2% in 2023. A Louisiana Department of Health report likewise estimates that 200,000 adults faced partner violence in the past year, though the supplied excerpt of that Louisiana Department of Health document cuts off mid-sentence and does not complete its comparison involving women.
Resources For Survivors
The New Orleans Family Justice Center and Hope Community Health Center help survivors of domestic violence, and the center has served 4,000 survivors, according to WWLTV's reporting. Among walk-in survivors at the center, non-fatal strangulation was reported in 69% of cases, the station noted, citing the center's data. The Family Justice Center offers help by phone at 504-866-9554 for anyone affected by domestic violence or strangulation.
