Who That Is?

The pigeons are eating ham and cheese out front of the corner store this morning. The Yat drinking coffee at the little table inside helps a homeless man buy a soda. It's kinda cold, kinda hot. And this man...

The Orleans Parish coroner's office has identified the man found shot to death inside a car Uptown on Wednesday. The victims name was Michael Spencer, age 27.

won't be around to see how the rest of the day shapes up.

Roll Over

The second shooting victim from yesterday's incident in St. Roch died in the hospital last night. That plus the following makes four dead in 2 days. Makes us feel like it's 2007 all over again.

Shortly before 6 p.m., 2nd District police responding to a call of a shooting found the man inside a car in front of 3616 Danneel St., near the corner of Amelia Street. Police found the victim in the driver's seat of the car. While the car's headlights were on and it had bumped into a parked car in front of it, investigators do not yet know whether the victim was driving the car at the time of the shooting. It appears shots were fired at the car from the outside, as police found casings on the sidewalk

Let's Talk...

...About St. Roch.

If you're like us, and find yourself up in this neighborhood a good bit, then you know the score.

You don't know the score you say? Here's yesterdays.

One man was fatally shot and another critically wounded Tuesday afternoon in the St. Roch neighborhood.Both men were shot in the head shortly after noon inside a house in the 1300 block of St. Roch Avenue. Police found both men inside the house with gunshot wounds. Richon Jones, 21, died at the scene. Jones is the city's 25th homicide victim in 2008. The other man, whose identity was not released, was taken to a hospital in critical condition.

Need a rhyme for Algiers? Have no fears. Ugh. We got nothing this morning.

New Orleans police are investigating a shooting death in Algiers, the second slaying in New Orleans in Tuesday. At 9:28 p.m., police responded to a report of gunfire in the 2000 block of Elizardi Boulevard and found the victim in front of a house near Wall Boulevard. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

No Good

We're trying different formats over here at the NOMB

Shootings -

1) Iberville and N. Rampart. 30 year-old is shot in foot running away from gunfire. If you are familiar with the area, you're not surprised. Unless you're a member of the NOAC and you had to park on Basin St. because the lots were too full. Of course, you wouldn't be working out at 4:01 AM

2)2300 block of Baronne. 21 year-old man is shot twice in back and once in the ear. Says he is walking, hears shots, feels burning sensation and realizes he has been hit. It almost sounds like a minor inconvenience

Stabbings -

1) Burgundy and St. Peters. Two men jump a 19 year-old and stab him in the back. It's good to know that as soon as the tourists leave, the police presence in the quarter disappears.

2) 4600 block Michoud Blvd. Two men get cut up in a bar fight.

3) 600 block Slidell St. One woman is stabbed by her girlfriend after an argument. NOMB never solves their disputes with significant others in this manner. We prefer the cold shoulder.

Stress

If you aren't living in the area, it may seem like all PTSD angst had fizzled out, and to be true, alot of it has. Most folks, while still stressed, tend to weather the trials.

So if you haven't been down to the Paris lately, this story could mean nothing to you. If you have, it makes perfect sense.

A Chalmette man apparently shot and killed his girlfriend and then killed himself in their home Saturday afternoon. They were identified as Melanie Doran, 52, and Lawrence McCall, 51, of 1204 Wisconsin St.
The bodies were discovered Saturday about 3:30 p.m. by Doran's sister, who had come to the house to visit, Baumy said. Doran's body was found in the bathroom, and McCall was found just outside the bathroom, each with a single gunshot wound to the head

Police Reports

Are small and often hiding in the print edition, but sometimes worth sniffing out.

In foggy news, the Mardi Gras Marathon kicked off this morning and NOMB was lucky enough to catch the hordes of toned leg muscles and bright outfits scampering down St. Charles.

So, with the Mardi Gras theme in mind...

If your like us and the majority of your consumer activities focus on the purchasing of tar paper, lumber, gypsum and silicone, than you probably know this truck stop. It’s the one where they actually set up a port-a-let so the laborers gathered on the curb can use the bathroom without entering either the truck stop, or the Lowe’s

A woman was stabbed in the leg by a man brandishing a silver sword (?) at the Mardi Gras Truck Stop off the I-10 and Elysian Fields. She was taken to the hospital where she apparently refused service.

In more grotesque parking lot news…

A purse snatching on the West Bank turned deadly Saturday afternoon. Shortly before 2 p.m., a woman who was preparing to leave a parking lot at Laborie's Food Market in Marrero was killed after she was run over while trying to resist a man who attacked her for her purse. While the 63-year-old woman was getting ready to enter her gold Toyota Camry, an unknown man got out of a nearby Dodge Ram pickup truck and grabbed her purse. As the victim, whose name was not released pending notification of her family, fought back, a second woman came to her aid. However, the women were not successful in fending off the man, who started to get back into the truck with the purse. As the truck, with a female driver and two male passengers, began to drive away, the victim -- apparently still fighting for her purse -- was pulled to the ground and run over,

God Must Be French

A 17-year-old boy was seriously wounded and a 14-year-old shot in the legs inside a stolen car in a Broadmoor neighborhood on Friday about noon, police said.
Their names weren't released.A man suspected in the shooting was spotted driving a black sport utility vehicle but escaped. Police said they knew of no motive for the attack.Second District officers responded to a report of the shooting in the 3000 block of Upperline Street, one block off South Claiborne Avenue, and found the two teens. One was shot in the back or side and was in critical condition. He had surgery later Friday. The younger boy was shot in one or both legs.

Back

After a welcome hiatus...

A man was shot in the head Thursday afternoon near the 7th Ward, the New Orleans Police Department said. About 4 p.m., 1st District officers found the man in the 2200 block of Barracks Street, near the corner of North Galvez Street.

Things That Go Bump

-"Did you hear about the stick up?"
-"What about the mugging?"
-Something or someone is banging on a car beneath our window. Then the whoop of a single siren. Lots of engines revving, the sound of cars running the stop sign on the corner.
-Two military cops running full speed to their car outside the corner store

-A possible gunshot and apparent drops of blood on the Steamboat Natchez last year set off a search of the Mississippi River for someone in the water, but it was not until last week that a body was found, the Orleans Parish coroner's office said.
A man's body was found Thursday about 10 a.m. in the river near the Naval Support Activity in Algiers. The coroner's office is seeking help in identifying the man, who might be connected to reports three months ago on the Natchez that someone may have gone overboard. -"Did you hear about the stick up?"

Saturday/Sunday

Saturday:
Two teenagers were shot, one fatally, when they were sprayed with bullets from an assault rifle Saturday afternoon in Marrero, authorities said. A white Hyundai Sonata with three males inside stopped about 1:05 p.m. in the 2000 block of Carver Drive. A man got out of the rear seat with an AK-47 assault rifle and fired numerous shots at the two teens, ages 18 and 16, who were standing nearby. The 18-year-old victim died later at University Hospital from a gunshot wound to the head. He was identified as Elijah Lee, of the 6500 block of Benedict Drive

Sunday:
A 20-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man were found shot inside a trailer in Gentilly Woods early Monday morning, police said. Police responded to a report of gunfire about 1 a.m. and found the two injured residents in a trailer near the intersection of Dreux Avenue and Congress Drive. Neither wounds appeared life-threatening.

This one makes us very, very angry for some reason. Reader will note that NOMB harbors a particular grudge against the NBA. Although the Saturday night dance party out front of Harrah's was nice.

A Florida teen-ager and two 24-year-old women -- one from New Orleans and the other from Galveston, Texas -- were hit by gunfire about 1 a.m. this morning in the French Quarter, police said.The gunfire broke out in the 300 block of Decatur Street, as crowds partied hours after the NBA All-Star game Sunday night.

Isn't Club Dreams right there? House of Blues? That sushi place that's always changing names?

Obssesions/Weekends

While NOMB has been ranting about the abuses of currency the NBA is perpetrating across the city in the name of public image improvement (see: Renting out Jackson Square for a party), small, unnoticed atrocities have been clipping along.

Luckily, this blog gives our editors a reason to wake up in the morning, else we might find ourselves hunkered down under layers of blankets on a sunny Saturday morning, watching all three film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, praying for work to start on Monday.

1) To read the paper, it seems half the tweens in NOLA are attending Hannah Montana concerts on ill-gotten tickets while the other half are succumbing to gunshot wounds.

Two teens were wounded in a shooting in a West Carrollton neighborhood Friday afternoon. Each victim was struck at least twice, but neither's wounds appeared to be life-threatening. One victim, who police said is 17 or 18, was treated in a local emergency room. The second, a 19-year-old, was treated on the scene in the 1800 block of Gen. Ogden Street. The teens were shot in a narrow alleyway between two occupied homes in a residential neighborhood, a woman who lived on that block said.

2) This was bound to happen. What else did we expect from a encampment of desperate people?

A 42-year-old man living in the homeless encampment under Interstate 10 was stabbed by another homeless man in a dispute involving donated clothing, police said Friday.
The New Orleans Police Department is looking for Larry Robair, 49, who they said stabbed a man in the back just before noon on Thursday. An unidentified donor had stopped by the area on Claiborne Avenue, where about 200 homeless people are living, and gave clothes to the man who was later stabbed.

3) Missing persons on Mardi Gras. We feel like we are still missing.

New Orleans police and a Texas family are asking for the public's help in finding a 28-year-old man who was last seen on Mardi Gras. John Delatte, a Marrero native who moved his family to Texas after Hurricane Katrina, was last seen by a friend on Feb. 5 in the French Quarter.

4) Finally, some cops up the street took a shot at some robbers off of Franklin and Marais. Apparently, the paper could not confirm whether or not the cop hurt his leg in the pursuit.

In Light of Everything

This seems minor. Still, it doesn't mean it didn't happen. The school in Baton Rouge. The one in Illinois.

We're tired of this stuff.

An apparent murder-suicide left two dead in a Waggaman home Thursday night.The investigation began at about 6 p.m. after sheriff's deputies received a call from an area school informing them an 8-year-old girl was still waiting to be picked up and there had been no sign of her parents. Deputies went to a home at 17 Sharen Place to try and find the girl's parents but were unsuccessful. At about 8 p.m., deputies went back to the house and were able to enter through a back window. Inside, they found the bodies of a man and a woman on the floor

All Quiet

Some might say there is a deliberate omission of certain instances in the city on account of the fact that the NBA is ready to descend upon us with all their economic glory. NOMB might be one of those saying it. More likely than not, we're just being our over paranoid, critical selves.

But regardless, here are two non-murder related stories:

1)Remember that photo we put up yesterday? Anyone? Seems we weren't the only folk who thought it strange.
Here's Nagin's response:

Yesterday's announcement was a lift to the morale of this heroic police department that lost much of it's resources in Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that resulted from the levee breaches. Instead a photo, taken out of context, was selected by our own local media and now showcased across the nation as a mockery of all this city's recovery efforts. This is the real tragedy.

Here's the TP's backpedal:

A photo in some Metro sections and on Nola.com on Wednesday showed a laughing Mayor Ray Nagin pointing an M-4 rifle at Chief of Police Warren Riley at a
news conference to announce new crime fighting equipment purchased by
the New Orleans Police Department. A review of a video taken at the
event shows that the mayor momentarily pointed the gun at the chief as
he was lowering it but he did not deliberately point it at Riley

Just so no one outside the city is confused, NOMB would like to point out that the real tragedy is the following...

Formaldehyde risks in trailers confirmed

Seriously

Remember yesterday? When NOMB ediotrs had a flash of the dramatic and claimed that the citizens of NOLA were living in the "brotherhood under the gun" as some silly play on the annoying NBA billboards flooding the CBD? Thought we'd lost it didn't you.

Well, not just yet...

And another thing, how often would you say domestic disturbances turn violent? We'd say more than not.

A domestic dispute involving an Algiers couple and another woman ended in a non-fatal shooting Tuesday afternoon.
The incident occurred in the 2700 block of Comet Street at about 12:30 p.m.

Also, we don't usually go as far as the Parish to look for news but this one liner caught us as seeminly telling:

A St. Bernard community man is accused of stiffing a cab driver on his fare, then beating the cabbie in the head with bricks and robbing him.

The Ticket

The men are repelling down the face of the W Hotel building on Canal Street as New Orleans preps for The NBA Allstar Game, the next big thing for the city's tattered national visability. Luckily, the weather is nice for biking and walking and the huge purple billboards read "BasketBall is a BrotherHood".

As NBA dollars flood the non-profits and hospitality industries, citizens of NOLA still finds themselves emeshed in another fraternity, The Sacred Order of the Brotherhood Under the Gun.

Monday:
Two people were killed in separate slayings Monday afternoon, one in eastern New Orleans, and the other in the 7th Ward, New Orleans police said. The killing in eastern New Orleans occurred sometime before 4 p.m. at Bullard Road and Hayne Boulevard. The second slaying occurred about 5:20 p.m. in the 2400 block of Allen Street, about 50 feet from the corner of North Dorgenois Street.
Thanks to the Times-Pic for the succinct update.

Luckily, NOLA crime's latest foray into the national spot light is much more engrossing than our run-of-the-mill murder plague.

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday declared it has blown the lid off what it described as a "classic espionage operation" involving two New Orleans residents and engineered by the Chinese government to obtain details of U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan.

That we have criminals of this mental caliber is astounding to everyone, including the FBI. China is getting to be quite the Russia, no?

Priorities

It was a violent Friday all across the state of LA, and the country, as we saw school shootings and shooting in government buildings. Politically, things are heating up enough down here for Obama to make a visit and a speech. The tenements that everyone seemed so concerned to save are being prepped for demolition. And the NBA Allstar game will bring another wave of national media attention our way. A wave that many originazations are chomping at the bit to take advantage of.

Still though, all this movement, no change. Murder keeps the status quo.

Two young men were wounded, one fatally, Friday evening in a shoot-out behind a Central City snowball stand. Brian Miller, 19, who later died, and the other man, were shot about 5:20 p.m. in a small lot behind a one-room snowball stand painted in a camouflage pattern in the 2300 block of Washington Avenue, near Lasalle Street.

And for those of you who like to sneek into the projects to do your underground stencil art, NOMB gives you the following:

A New Orleans man was shot Saturday in the mostly vacant B.W. Cooper public housing complex, New Orleans police said. The 21-year-old man, whose name was not released, was shot in the back and leg at about 6 p.m. in the 1200 block of South Miro Street, said Shereese Harper, a police spokeswoman.


Remember folk, these neighborhoods just look empty.

Hard Roads

It's not a murder or a violent crime, but something about this story speaks to us over here at NOMB. This person was in our world. Submerged in this culture of violence.

A New Orleans woman who did investigative work on behalf of capital murder defendants died Wednesday in a fall from the Crescent City Connection that authorities are investigating as a possible suicide.

Charlotte Glass, 66, who helped humanize murder defendants in the eyes of jurors and others in the criminal justice system, was pronounced dead Wednesday morning when her body was recovered from the river within an hour of the incident

Violent Carnival Season?

That's what they say. Down here at the office,NOMB is still enamoured with Mardi Gras. We wanna talk about that one thing we saw, or the guy who did that, and wasn't it great how we all did that other thing and then laughed about it? Yeah, it was great. But unfortunately, we got other buisness.

A gunman opened fire Wednesday morning and killed a 26-year-old man driving a rental car in the Lower Garden District, sending the car careening into a nearby building.In broad daylight Wednesday, with people standing outside, Edward Causey, 26,of New Orleans, drove a white Pontiac sedan eastbound on Annunciation Street about 10:30 a.m., authorities said. When he reached the intersection at St. Mary Street, a waiting man sprayed his vehicle with gunfire

And...

A man was shot in the leg and back Wednesday night in the 7th Ward, New Orleans police said. Shortly before 10 p.m., 1st District officers found the man in the 1200 block of Frenchmen Street, near Marais Street.

Lay Low

Open the Times-Picayune today and you got 28 photos of Carnival, a article on the Hornet's losing streak, and a blurb about some election thing that happened the other day or something. Other than that though, there's no content.

Nothing Happened Yesterday Folks.

Nothing at all.

Lundi Gras

While the Bywater anarchist parade turned and twisted its way through the French Quarter, much to the chagrin of the confused NOPD, some folks in St. Roch were doing what we do. Living and Dying for Carnival.

A man died Sunday night after being shot during an altercation in the parking lot of a downtown fast food restaurant, according to a New Orleans Police Department spokesman.
The unidentified victim was riding in the passenger seat of a vehicle when he was shot at about 9:45 p.m. in the 1700 block of North Galvez Street.

And not too far away...

A New Orleans man died of multiple gunshot wounds early Sunday in the 1600 block of Marigny Street, said a spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department.

They say in Rio anywhere between 60-100 deaths is standard for their revelry.

In a more hilarious Carnival story, word on the street is that the last floats of Muses were stalled out down from Gen Taylor because one of the tractor drivers was being arrested for DUI. Apparently, as the float sat, a random parade goer jumped forward and took the helm to finish out the parade!

What The Hell

We were gonna take the next three days off, but with a night like last night we had to put something up.

1. Five people shot Saturday night at Canal and Baronne just as Endymion passed. The whole thing went down shortly before 10:30 PM.
If you were out there and saw the crowds, this really doesn't come as much surprise. SOoner or later someone was bound to try and cross through someone else's party space on the neutral ground and then look out. Mid-City folk can be territorial. PS Don't write in and tell us that this particular intersection isn't in Mid-City. We Know.

2.Murder 1 - Terry Robinson, age 26, was found shot dead near N. Johnson and Montegut in the St. Claude neighborhood. Times-Pic reports: Although his body was found Saturday afternoon, it appeared that Robinson was shot sometime Friday night.
That means his body was lying out there for a good while before someone put down their daiquiri and call NOPD.

3. Murder 2 - Allen Porche, 24, was shot to death in the 1200 block of Delery St.
That's number 18 officially, although long time readers will remember NOMB's stance on the division between JP and Orleans murder counts.

4. And for those of you with no tolerance for irony we give you the following: A float rider in the Krewe of Endymion parade died Saturday night after falling from a double-decker flaot as the parade disbanded near the Superdome. Apparently, he was dragged a ways.

Can't never take a day off in this trembling metropolis, can we folks?

Parades

Just in case you missed it, the Times-Pic wants you all to know:

A bullet meant for someone else traveled through a downtown New Orleans hotel's lobby window Wednesday night and hit a 42-year-old local man in the head while a Carnival parade passed by a block away.

Key word here. Local.
Sorry we reported otherwise. French Quarters relax.

Also, if this isn't enough to damper your Mardi Gras spirit, NOMB was out at Muses last night, caught a shoe and the following text message:

Someone got shot in the 1500 block of St. Chrls
We, of course, continued to shout at our friend on float four to give us one of those great plush roller skates to go with our glittery square toed platform that all the girls around us seemed so envious of.

The Picayune confirms the shooting with this:
New Orleans police said a man was wounded in the arm when gunfire broke out along the parade route in the 1500 block of St. Charles Avenue. The shooting took place at about 9:45 p.m., during the Krewe d'Etat parade, near the intersection of St. Charles Avenue and Terpsichore Street.

Ahh, who are we kidding? Nothing is gonna dampen these Mardi Gras spirits.
Peace Out NOLA. NOMB will see Ash Wed!

A Nerve

It seems, from the recent surge of site traffic, that NOMB has touched a nerve somewhere. But, we'll let anyone who wants to speak their piece. This all being said, we will now keep further comments to the comments page and would suggest that those out there with a keen interest, connection with this particular shooting start a web campaign to make their opinions more available to the public. Not that we mind the readership over here. Anyway, with all this in mind, here's some more from the Kyle Brown contingency:

One Reader:
As the spouse to a military man, I was born and raised in NO, but AM NOT ALLOWED by my own husband to enter New Orleans WITHOUT my gun. As an American Citizen with no felony record, I have the right to bear arms. Does anyone know what carrying a weapon for self defense is about? Just because you carry a gun doesn't mean your up to no good - it means your gonna take care of yourself when faced with imminent danger.
As a female standing 5'2" tall and weighing 125lbs, I have had to pull my gun IN NO when 4 (FOUR) men in their early twenties ran toward me yelling obscenities (and yes, myself and the FOUR wanna bees are/were white. They were obviously up to no good running at me and stopping only when I opened my car door and turned around with my gun locked and loaded. Halted in their tracks, turned their tails and ran back to their vehicle that was parked and still running. What were they up to? We never got to find out cause I had my gun and was trained and ready to use it.
Kyle has the right to bear arms and if he is not in the act of a crime when armed, he should have to answer to no one!
God watch over Kyle and help him in his healing and I also pray that I don't know either of the two police officers.

This might be another, maybe the same one probably:
Furthermore, Kyle Brown is a fine young man, and everyone who knows him are shocked at the news report because this is not the behavior of Kyle. He was about to become a police officer himself, yet now in ICU at the hospital where, might I add they won't allow ANYONE to see him, not even his parents, and will not give any information over the phone as to be updated on Kyle's condition. In custody or not, why is it that even a mother and father be DENIED to even get a glimpse of their son, let alone be there with him in such a critical state of health. Since the shooting, NOT ONE PERSON, FRIEND, FAMILY MEMBER, outside law enforcement and hospital officials, have been able to see Kyle. How do we know he is even being treated properly? How could we know anything of his wounds if we cannot see him. At minimum this is a gross injustice to the family, not to mention very CRUEL.

We at NOMB fins this whole affair rather vexing, but chose not to make a stand one way or the other. We're just here to catalog. And to keep to that vein:

WWNO is reporting that Jefferson Parish deputies found the body of a man shot in his truck yesterday. They were responding to a call of shots fired and found the man dead in the cab of his truck, parked up against a trailer, maybe.