By Andrew Rafferty and Daniel Arkin
Akein Scott
New Orleans – Police have identified a 19-year-old man as a suspect in the Mother’s Day shooting that wounded 19 people marching in a parade.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said at a press conference late Monday that an arrest warrant has been issued for Akein Scott. He was positively identified by more than one person, Serpas said.
Authorities searched three different addresses Monday night but were unable to find Scott, NBC New Orleans affiliate WDSU reported.
“We will be looking for Akein Scott for the rest of the night and tomorrow until we find him, and I would strongly recommend that Akein turn himself in,” said Serpas.
Scott has a criminal background which includes charges of resisting arrest and possession of a fire arm, Serpas said.
Earlier in the day, New Orleans police had released dramatic images early that show what authorities believe is the moment a buoyant Mother’s Day celebration was brought to a halt by a barrage of bullets.
Surveillance images recorded on North Villere Street in the 7th Ward neighborhood show a man police consider a potential suspect appearing to open fire on a crush of people gathered for a festive holiday parade. An adult male can be seen charging with raised hands, sending parade-goers scrambling in all directions of the surveillance camera’s frame.
On Sunday, Serpas said there may have been as many as three shooters in Sunday’s attack, which left 19 people injured – including two young children.
And at a press conference earlier Monday, Serpas asked that anyone who may have photos, videos or witnessed the possible shooter to contact law enforcement, stressing a $10,000 award for information leading to an arrest.
“I want to remind you that two children were struck in this incident,” he said. “And if you choose not to tell the police what you know, then you’re choosing to stand with those who shot those children.”
At least three people were spotted running away from the scene after the gunfire erupted at 1:45 p.m.
New images show one suspect believed to have been behind yesterday’s shooting a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans. NBCNews.com’s Dara Brown reports.
Police said 10 adult men, seven adult women, a 10-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl were struck by bullets. The injured children were grazed by the bullets and were in good condition Sunday evening, New Orleans Police spokesman Garry Flot said in a statement. A woman and a man were reportedly in surgery Sunday evening, but there were no fatalities and most wounds were not life-threatening, police said.
The victims were marching in what is known as a second line parade, a buoyant New Orleans tradition inspired by the city’s iconic jazz funerals: A brass band plays as it marches in the streets, while a lively “second line” of people follows the band, celebrating and dancing.
Officials said the parade was two blocks long and included about 400 people, though only half that number were close to the gunfire. The crime scene was about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece of the HBO TV series “Treme.”
“These are unusual circumstances. We have second lines which occur in the city of New Orleans virtually every weekend at this time of the year,” Serpas said. “We had a full complement of police officers. It appears that these two or three people just for a reason unknown to us, started shooting at, towards, or in the crowd. It was over in just a couple seconds.”
Shermaine Tyler, 32, was celebrating Mother’s Day just a block away from the barrage of bullets.
“Me and mom were going to the second line. I told her I didn’t want to go because there are always shots at a second line,” Tyler told The Times-Picayune. “And the second I heard shots, I heard shots fired, we ran outside and one man fell in my lap who had been shot.”
She told the newspaper that the man who tumbled into her lap had been shot in his groin area and in his hand.
“This is all ridiculous. We all bleed the same blood. We all come from the same God,” Tyler told the newspaper. “Everyone is getting shot, and for what?”
Leonard Temple, who waited outside New Orlean’s Interim LSU Public Hospital on Sunday evening while a friend was in surgery after being shot three times during the parade, described the scene before shots rang out.
“People were just hanging out. We were just chilling,” Temple told The Associated Press.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Sunday that the shooting was part of “the relentless drum beat of violence” on the streets of New Orleans.
“It’s a shame and it’s got to stop,” Landrieu told The Times-Picayune from outside the hospital. “You see it cascading across the country but we have more of it than anyone else.”
Second lines have been targets for violence in New Orleans in recent years. In the past, shooters have targeted a specific person in the crowd, which authorities say may have been the case Sunday as well. But Landrieu dismissed the notion of outlawing the Louisiana tradition.
“It’s not the second line that did the shooting,” he said. “The cultural events are very important to us, it’s like calling for an end to Mardi Gras because someone takes an opportunity to shoot someone during one of our parades.”
Landrieu called for residents to gather at the site of the shooting Monday evening as a show of solidarity and commitment to stopping gun violence in the city.
