NEW ORLEANS — Three people are dead after two shootings and another incident in the city that happened in the span of just a few hours, a sharp rise in killings since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The attacks spanned from Wednesday night to early Thursday morning and happened across the city -- in the Fairgrounds, St. Roch and Gentilly neighborhoods.
Two men were shot and a third was reported murdered, although his cause of death was not immediately clear, police officials said.
Now, the New Orleans Police Department has three new homicide investigations and the city has 38 murders in the first three months of 2020.
While there have been several non-fatal shootings during the pandemic, before Saturday, March 29, when a woman was killed in Algiers, there had not been a homicide reported in New Orleans since March 16 -- by far the longest positive stretch this year.
The first death was reported to the NOPD around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday out of the 2700 block of Marigny Street in the St. Roch neighborhood.
The victim was declared dead at the scene.
Later, police discovered the man had a gunshot wound, and NOPD detectives reclassified the shooting as a homicide.
About four hours later, a man was shot and killed in the chest just off Broad Street, at the intersection of N. Broad and Bayou Road, a normally busy spot with several businesses.
Around 5 a.m. Thursday, a third man was found dead at the intersection of Elysian Fields Avenue and Gentilly Boulevard, another spot that is typically busy with foot and vehicle traffic.
NOPD officials said they were investigating the death as a homicide but could not immediately say the believed cause of death.
The victims, all unidentified men, now go to the Orleans Parish Coroner's office, who will release their names and official causes of death after notifying the families.
No possible motives nor suspects were given by police officials, but they did not say they believed any were connected.
Anyone with information that could lead to arrests in these incidents should call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.
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