NEW ORLEANS — A woman was in custody Thursday night after police said she pulled a gun on a veteran officer in front of the Second District station, but the incident did not end there.
An eyewitness said he thought his life was in danger.
A man who was sitting on his porch right across the street from the police station, said the woman who police have identified as 21-year-old Jincye Brown, also pulled the gun on him.
But this is a man who is unable to yell for help.
Leroy Williams, 72, loves to pass time on his front porch listening to music.
He is retired after 40 years as a truck driver, a career that earned him the ability to buy his duplex and a home for his family next door. Leroy also is a cancer survivor. His tongue had been removed, and he breathes through the tracheotomy in his neck. He wrote to us on a small board and pantomimed what happened this morning.
“Five to six times she walked back and forth,” Williams wrote about the woman’s actions.
He says she was on the sidewalk in front of the Second District Station and then stopped in front of a large oak tree.
“She was walking back, and forth. You were sitting on your porch. She pulled a gun on who? On you? And you hid behind the column,” this reporter interprets his words. Then, he lets out a big breath, and gestures a thumbs up in approval of the interpretation.
He said he kept peeking around the brick column of his home when police came and arrested her.
“And they grabbed her, and they handcuffed her, and they brought her in the building, but she's still in the building”
Leroy said she did not resist arrest.
When asked had he ever seen the woman before, Williams shakes his head “No.”
To the follow up question was she ranting, or yelling anything? He writes she had no words, and just pulled the gun in silence.
He didn't know how police knew that she had aimed the small hand gun at him, but a statement from police answers why police arrested her. NOPD states that an officer was in his marked police car in the parking lot when the woman approached the car, and "allegedly produced a firearm. The officer produced his service weapon, and instructed the subject to drop her weapon."
When Williams was asked if he had ever seen anything like this incident happen before in this area, He shakes his hands indicating no, that the area is safe because the police stations is directly across the street.
Police said Brown complied with the officer, and was arrested without incident.
No shots were fired, and there were no injuries.
Police had not yet interviewed Leroy Williams.
Complete NOPD statement:
At about 10:16 a.m. today (May 9, 2024), an NOPD Second District officer was inside of his marked unit in the parking lot of the Second District station in the 3400 block of Broadway Street when he was reportedly approached by a female subject. When the officer asked if the subject needed assistance, the subject allegedly produced a firearm. The officer produced his service weapon and instructed the subject to drop her weapon. The subject complied and was arrested without incident. No shots were fired and no injuries were reported.
The subject, identified as Jincye Brown (black female, DOB: 07-02-2003) was arrested on one count of attempted murder of a police officer.
The incident remains under investigation by the NOPD’s Force Investigation Team and is believed to be isolated.
The officer involved in the incident is an eight-year veteran officer.
No further information is currently available.