Monday

The Treme is on fire. The art stars are trickling into town. Please don't go wandering too far off the official path. Your ass will get jacked. Seriously.

Two people, including a 17-year-old, were fatally shot Sunday night in the greater Treme neighborhood, New Orleans police said.

First District Task Force officers heard shots about 8:20 p.m. and found the young men in the 2600 block of Dumaine Street, near North Broad Street

Solitary Moments

While the rain pounds us, and floods the streets, the party goers don ponchos and hit the streets. The killers, they got their business. The New York lawyers, they got their cameras and umbrellas.

NOMB we got nothing but this:

A New Orleans man was fatally shot inside a 7th Ward bar early Saturday, Louis Bertholotte, 25, was shot several times in the torso about 3:30 a.m. in the New Edition bar in the 2100 block of A.P. Tureaud Avenue

That plus these three from LaHarpe make four in 15 hours they say:

Margaret Wells, 21. Johnny Crawford, 20. Tony Wells, 22, died less than three hours later at a hospital.

Don't say we never did anything for ya.

What It Is Ya'll

The throngs of summer dresses in the French Quarters. The sit-in sessions on Frenchman. The food. The weather. Enjoy it people.

Three masked gunmen dressed in black shot three people, two fatally and one critically, in a Seventh Ward home invasion midday Friday, police said. The shooting took place shortly before 1 p.m. in the 2300 block of Laharpe Street, roughly eight blocks from the scene of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at the fairgrounds.The gunmen entered the two-story, walk-up house in the middle of the block and fired on three people inside

Don't sweat it, folks, unless, you know, you were up on Laharpe in the 2300 block, maybe painting a house on the corner, or you know, just living your life in the city that gives us Jazz Fest and FBI mayors.

Babies

We enter our warehouse this morning and are confronted by the embryonic carcasses of two baby birds, mouths agape, skin translucent and wet on the concrete steps.

Stick with what ya know:
A shooting has been reported in the 2400 block of Elysian Fields Avenue.
Stay with nola.com as the story develops.

Also, yesterday's murder victim has a name. Ladies and Gentleman, NOLA's #62 for the year:

Robert C. Hurst died shortly after midnight

The Stranger

Anyone who denies the link between increased surface temperatures on planet Earth and violence has obviously not considered the following:

1) Camus
2) New Orleans Summer

8th in as many days it seems

An murder was reported overnight in the 1300 block of Gallier Street in the 9th Ward. No other information was available.

No one at Elizabeth's was harmed.

Understatements

One of today's headlines

Man shot to death in New Orleans


1) A man was fatally shot Sunday in Gentilly, becoming the seventh person slain in four days in New Orleans. As Michael Allen, 32, was getting out of a vehicle in the 4700 block of Miles Drive Sunday shortly before 1 p.m., a man approached and opened fire.

Seven bodies in four days. Reminds us of that time last year when we had 13 shot in 12 days. That sure was a summer to remember.

54,58,Dead Man Driving, etc

In yesterday's paper:

54 killing so far in 2008, which marks an improvement over the 59 murders committed during the same time period last year. Riley [Police Commissioner Riely] said the drop in murders coincides with an increased number of clearances by the NOPD's homicide squad.

A day too soon, we spoke, eh?

Today's list:
1) This is right over by old man Money's house. A good guy with a new rear wall that looks fabulous, if we do say so ourselves - In the 7th Ward, 1st District police found the body of Lorne Simms, 20, of New Orleans, lying on the sidewalk in the 1400 block of North Johnson Street, between Kerlerec and Columbus streets, about noon. Simms died from a single gunshot wound to the head.

2)Saturday, a man was shot dead in eastern New Orleans. The man, whose identity was withheld by police, died about 6:40 p.m. among a group of trailers or modular homes just north of Chef Menteur Highway near Downman Road. A man who said he was the victim's uncle said the victim was 18.

3)Close to where the SUV ran into the bar (see #1 below):
Shortly before 11 p.m., a man in his early 20s was fatally shot in the 2500 block of Upperline Street.

The Times-Picayune is putting the total at 58 for the year, although this blog will continue to maintain that there is no accurate gauge for discerning this information, at least not a gauge anyone over here can identify.

Backtrack to Friday:

1) Dead Man driving, according to a voice mail we received on Saturday afternoon, is a rare condition that has been experience 3 times already this year. We at NOMB can only attribute this to the recent rise in the "Ghost Riding" phenomenon so prevalent in the youtube Cadillac culture.

A motorist was shot to death Friday night and rammed his car into the entrance ramp of an Uptown bar popular with college student. The victim approached his girlfriend's home, a shooter or shooters jumped from a car where they were apparently waiting and fired into the car, striking the man at least twice. The wounded driver sped away, apparently attempting to escape. He managed to avoid two parked cars nearby, but spun and crashed into the bar's handicapped-access ramp,

2)Down the road:
Later Friday, there was another shooting in the Central City neighborhood. It occurred about 11 p.m. in the 2300 block of Seminole Lane, near the part of Jackson Avenue midway between South Claiborne Avenue and South Galvez Avenue. The victim was shot several times.

Random Acts:

1) Shooting: Banks Street Tuesday 11:32 PM
2) Shooting: 800 blk N. Claiborne April 10th, 12:21 AM
3) Stabbing: 3200 blk River Oaks Dr. April 10th, 6:53 PM

This has to be one of the more depressing posts we've made in a few weeks.

NOMB: Now With Text Update

Here's how it reads:

"Dude we got a good ole fashion gun fight down here on constance about two blocks downtown from us. I didn't go check out who the unlucky was but the masses were gathered...i love this town.

This message came in from a friend living off magazine around 6:30 as NOMB was taking a leisurely bike ride through the quarter.

The paper reports it as follows:
A spray of bullets from at least two guns on Thursday evening killed a 20-year-old New Orleans man. Guy McEwen, who turned 20 on Wednesday, was killed in the 700 block of Peniston Street, near the corner of Constance Street, shortly before 5 p.m., authorities said. His body lay in the gutter, next to the sidewalk.

The man, McEwen, apparently testified in the Dinerral Shavers trial yet we wonder what the point of a retaliation killing would be since "Head" (the man accused of the drummers murder) walked last week. Not to mention that McEwen failed to finger the shooter in court.

In other news:
No one seems to know what the commotion in the Treme was yesterday as 10+ cop cars swarmed the St. Bernard Ave between N. Robertson and Marais.

Remeber, It's Still New Orleans

We get a text message that reads, essentially:

GOT JUMPED, STOLE MY BIKE, THREE OF THEM NEAR CLAIBORNE

The story, while not much different from the text, is the tale of a girl, new to the city. She fell in love when she came to volunteer. For the last 2 months, she's lived in Bywater and enjoys drinking and dancing at Mimi's, going to the Frenchmen and the festivals. Talks about how much anarchist energy the place has and has no regard for the warnings and advice of others.

On the corner of N. Roman and Esplanade, riding home from a free Hari Krishna meal, our heroines escort (a local chap of no small importance to this blog) slows his bike to wait for the meandering girl, too in love with Esplanade Ridge's fine housing to heed his warnings to speed up. As he waits, three men he can only describe as fists and braids surge him, stomp him, and get away with his bike. This was at 8:30.

Our heroine, who does not stop (for obvious reasons) rides to find help. The police, who are notoriously unwilling to help, spend a few minutes discussing whether or not the incident falls within their jurisdiction. It does not.

Anyway, just don't forget people. Seriously. We know its seems all vibrant during festival season. But if you haven't spent a summer here, try not to involve others to their own detriment.

Also:
Gretna police are seeking the public's assistance in finding the killer of a New Orleans man fatally shot early Sunday outside a Gretna nightclub.
Brandon Dugars, 26, was shot several times about 4 a.m. while entering his vehicle after leaving J's Place Night Club in the 1200 block of Burmaster Street, near the New Orleans line.

Controversy

Word came down the channel like water into the spillway last night. The man accused of murdering Hot 8 Brass Band drummer, Dinerral Shavers walked, the city unable to make a case on the back of three New Orleans girl's testimony.
A lot of people are gonna write books, but after a four day case the story really boils down to the following:

When asked whether she saw the killer in court, the girl who for more than a year has been described by prosecutors as the key witness stood up.
"I don't see anybody," said the girl, who was 14 the evening of the killing and whose mother didn't want her testifying a year ago. "I must need glasses."

In a separate, and equally despicable atrocity, NOMB presents the following:
A kidnapping that began in Metairie ended late Thursday night in the Lower 9th Ward when New Orleans police fatally wounded the suspected kidnapper. The victim, a 47-year-old Indiana man, was pronounced dead shortly after 10:30 p.m. at University Hospital

Read the rest of it here.

Three-a-days

Remember two-a-days prepping for football season in highschool? And, at the end of the week, the coach would have the guy who drives the watermelon truck come out. He would cut up the watermelon and lay it out on the field and you would sit in your pads and eat until you burst. The clouds were high and the sun was burnig the back of your neck. Remember that?

NOMB doesn't either. None of us played football.

Four shootings in one day. New Orleans style summer.

1&2)Around midnight police found two men suffering from gunshot wounds in the 7000 block of Boston Drive in eastern New Orleans. The unidentified men were transported to a local hospital but their conditions were unknown. Police had no suspects or motive for the shootings.

3)Less than an hour later, an unidentified New Orleans man was shot in the leg on Toulouse Street.Police could provided no details on the shooting, and couldn't give the exact location or the condition of the victim. Police had no suspects or motive in the case.

4)About 4:40 a.m., an unidentified security guard for Club Fabulous in the 800 block of North Claiborne Avenue was shot, but was saved by his bulletproof vest.

Text Messages

We recieve one warning us of "something like 20 gunshots" going off in Mid-City.
"Maybe you'll be writing it tomorrow," the message read.




2)Later Tuesday, a 28-year-old New Orleans man was shot in the 3900 block of Hamilton Street in Hollygrove. Officers responded to a call at 7:40 p.m. about gunfire and found the man lying on the street near Palmetto Street and Airline Drive. He died at the scene

In news from Tuesday:

Meanwhile, one of two men shot Monday in a nightclub in Gert Town has died, the coroner's office said.In the Gert Town case, Durrell Brown, 21, of New Orleans and a 23-year-old man were shot Monday about 2:30 a.m. in Club Rockafella 2.5 at 3635 Pine St.

Police said an officer who was in the area heard shots and entered the crowded club, which is a block from Washington Avenue. He found Brown shot in the back of the head and the other man shot in the shoulder and stomach.

Brown died Tuesday at University Hospital

The List

A few times now, we've been asked to provide lists. List of names, list of numbers. NOMB is the list, names less sometimes, certainly incapable of producing an accurate number of murders in the city for the simple reason that this number is, in all reality, completely untrackable for people in our position. Who knows what happens to shooting victims sent to the hospital in critical condition? If names aren't released in the initial press material, or police log, how can we track it down? Of course there are channels, but this isn't our mission.

The steady stream of faceless, nameless, senseless acts is our business. Not because we're morbid. Not because we're sick. Just because, people. Just because we couldn't find it anywhere else.


1)A man and woman died Monday after an apparent attempted murder-suicide in Algiers. The incident occurred inside a home at 3537 Timber Wolf Lane about 3 p.m. New Orleans police officers responded to a report of shots fired and found an unidentified man and woman with gunshot wounds. The woman was shot in the chest and the man had a head wound.

2)A 27-year-old New Orleans man was killed Monday afternoon in the Lower Garden District. Jerome Sparkman was found by 6th District officers in a white Chevy Impala with gunshot wounds to his body. Police received the call about a "male shot" at 2:24 p.m. near Laurel and Josephine streets.

3)Earlier Monday, two men were shot inside a Gert Town club, according to police documents. Two men in their early 20s were shot inside Club Rockafella 2.5 at 3635 Pine St. When 2nd District officers arrived at about 3 a.m., they found a 21-year-old man shot to the back of the head and a 23-year-old man, shot in the right shoulder and stomach.A department gist said the man with a head wound was listed in critical condition, while the other was in stable condition.


See folks, how we gonna follow up on that?

Last Three Days

WE know what you might be thinking. That we've been sleeping on this murder blog thing. And, well, you might be right. We've been slipping. But we can assure you this: We haven't been sleeping

1)A New Orleans man was shot and killed Sunday in the Hollygrove neighborhood, New Orleans police said.
Jacky Patton, 47, was shot about 5:40 p.m. in the 8800 block of Pritchard Place, near Eagle Street and Earhart Boulevard
2)A Bridge City man was killed near his home Thursday night in what may have been a botched robbery, according to neighbors. Deputies found Eli Espinoza, 46, with gunshot wounds in his chest and knee in an open field in the 1100 block of Bridge City Avenue about 9:30 p.m

The thing of it is, what with the festival season kicking in, and the fact that it takes 20 minutes longer to navigate the quarter on bike, and the general over crowding of our Spring Time city, NOMB is having a hard time making the police log rounds.

We promise to be better

We Know We're Missing

A lot of things that happen in the city, like crawfish boils, and stories that don't make the papers, television sitcoms and the like. The reason? Because we get stuck in movie traffic on Canal Street, watching for half a hour in our hot truck watching a flaming car run up and down the street.

Seedy Motels are a plenty in this neighborhood, same as on N. Prieur in Treme, and Airline Highway just off Causeway.

An unidentified woman was found dead inside a motel room on Tulane Avenue this morning, according to a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Police Department. The woman appeared to suffer from head injuries.

Officer Jonette Williams said an acquaintance of the woman called the police at 3:30 a.m. and reported that she had found the woman inside a room at Le Petit Motel, 2836 Tulane Avenue. When paramedics arrived, they pronounced her dead.

TidBits

Not that it is exactly our cup of tea, but we've always had a soft spot in our hearts for stabbings, especially when they stick us so close to home

Stabbing 1) North Claiborne and St. Ann, 3:01 a.m.
Stabbing 2) Banks and South Cortez, 3:00 a.m. Saturday

Apparently, 3 a.m. is the stabbing hour in NOLA

Desolate

You hear a lot of rumors coming back to NOLA. Our favorite so far, a member of the TCC Americorp army has been shot. The paper though, gives us our only glimpse these days and we can't help but wonder what were missing out on.



Charlie Hulbert, 18, of New Orleans had been shot several times around 12:06 a.m. near the intersection of Florida Avenue and Congress Street. Emergency medical technicians said he was dead at the scene.

An abandoned warehouse, missing a couple of walls and strewn with debris, is next to the shooting scene. The pavement was streaked with blood and littered with trash Tuesday afternoon.

Back in the Hood

We find ourselves driving east on St. Claude. We then find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a gang fight on the corner of Piety where 20-30 boys have traffic in both directions blocked up as they commence with a full on brawl. Sticks, bricks, and fists. By the end of it, we are sure of two things:
1) The boy who has been beaten severely with a brick will live, although he is unconscious and the ambulance takes 45 minutes to arrive
2) Someone is going to get shot

What are the kids thinking, we ask.

Three Metairie teenagers have been arrested in connection with a pair of violent home invasions Saturday morning, authorities said.
Khiri Daniels, 18, 2219 Pasadena Ave.; Eric Watson, 18, 2305 Giuffrias Ave.; and Clarence Bruer, 17, 2204 Giuffrias Ave.; were each booked with two counts of aggravated burglary, according to Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest reports. They are accused of barging into two Metairie residences that were only blocks from their own homes. In both home invasions, the teens attacked residents, seriously injuring at least one man, according to arrest reports.