NEW ORLEANS — NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said he has authorized overtime for homicide detectives and patrol officers after an uptick in deadly gun violence across the city.
"We have noticed a significant spike in violent crime," Ferguson said outside of the NOPD HQ in Mid-City. "None of which I can specifically state are related .... We are aware, we see the spike and we are investigating."
Ferguson's Friday press conference was in response to a pair of deadly multiple-victim shootings in less than 48 hours in New Orleans. This week, a total of six people had been fatally shot in New Orleans by Friday morning.
In the first multi-victim fatal shooting, reported Wednesday afternoon, four men working on a drainage project were shot by a group who pulled up in a truck while they were on the job.
"To have a homicide occur at a church, if a church ground is not safe, what is?" Ferguson said.
Thursday night, four people were shot in Central City. One of those people died.
In a separate shooting elsewhere in the city, three people were injured.
A third shooting killed a 20-year-old in the Gentilly Terrace neighborhood.
Ferguson attributed the uptick to the "bolder, more brazen criminal element we are dealing with," and said many of the crimes are occurring in broad daylight.
Even as he stepped out of the building to deliver his statement, his words were proven true. Ferguson opened by announcing another homicide near the intersection of North Claiborne and Ursuline avenues.
Few details were available about that still-developing homicide investigation because it was so fresh. As Ferguson put it, he was "prepared to talk about six homicides, not seven."
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