The body of a 36-year-old man New Orleans police said was shot dead lay on a Central City sidewalk Tuesday morning (Feb. 6) as the victim's relatives arrived and rain started to fall.
The shooting was reported at about 9:19 a.m. Tuesday near the intersection of Josephine and Clara streets, police said.
NOPD spokesman Gary Scheets said the man was shot more than once and pronounced dead at the scene. Black screens used at homicide scenes to block the view of bodies from bystanders were set up in front of a beige duplex on the corner of Josephine and Clara streets. A woman sat on a stoop catty-corner from where the shields were arranged, loudly crying, her forehead resting on her hand.
A man in a red shirt walked fast through the crime scene toward the body, and the crying woman yelled toward him, calling out his name. But two police officers held him back, ushering him outside the yellow crime scene tape. The crying woman at one point yelled, "Let my brother go!"
The crying woman, wearing navy scrubs, was heard a minute or so later sobbing and yelling as they rounded a corner. A piece of the officer's equipment fell off his uniform as he held back the man in the red shirt. A bystander who had earlier tried to calm the red-shirted man, telling officers, "I got him," picked up the piece of equipment off the ground and returned it to the officer.
The dead man, wearing a light brown shirt and white tennis shoes, lay on his side, facing the beige house, while a homicide detective walked outside one side of the duplex.
"Mike, don't do this to us, Mike! ... Mike, get up!" shrieked a woman was she arrived later to the scene. She was identified by another family member as the victim's aunt. "God, why me? Jesus, what did I do wrong?"
A group of four or more people cradled the woman, who wore black pants, a black blazer and a work badge, as she went toward the crime scene tape, and back again.
A man who said he was related to the shrieking woman and to the dead man identified the victim as Michael Hunter. A woman who appeared to be middle aged walked by him, away from the crime scene, quietly crying. The man said that woman, whose cheeks were wet, was another one of Hunter's aunts.
As the coroner's van drove beneath the crime scene tape, near the body, the victim's aunt who had been screaming yelled louder.
"Mike, you got to get up, Mike. ... You can't do this right now, Mike," his aunt said. "Mike, get out that truck, Mike!" she yelled as the doors to the coroner's van were shut. When it pulled away, she yelled, "Mike, please!...Michael!"
A young man in a fluorescent vest leaned against a nearby SUV, his head on his arm, and cried into his forearm.
After the coroner's van pulled away around the same time rainfall started to pick up, many relatives and bystanders dispersed, some into nearby houses, some down nearby blocks.
A pool of blood remained on the sidewalk where the body had lain.
When the scene, earlier marked by sobs and yelling, had quieted, the relative in the red shirt, who had left the immediate area of the crime scene, returned again and ripped through the yellow crime scene tape to round the corner, prompting some officers to follow after him. Earlier, the same man had hurled an object inside the crime scene tape. A few officers stared at him as he did it, but let him walk away on his own.
Across the intersection from where the body lay, three large teddybears or other stuffed animals leaned against a wooden power pole. About five candles with Christian figures on them were tucked close to the stuffed animals. Nearby wooden letters spelled out, "HAM." White wax from candles dotted the pavement in front of the stuffed animals and throughout the street corner. A man standing nearby said the candles and stuffed animals were used days ago on that corner for a vigil.
The man who spoke about the vigil said people gathered there about a week ago to memorialize his cousin Thaddeus "Hammie" Jackson. Jackson, 26, along with Jacquelyn "Jackie" Williams, 33, were found shot dead Jan. 29 inside Williams' second-floor apartment in the 8200 block of Palmetto Street, in Gert Town.
Tuesday's shooting marked the fifth person shot dead in the last three weeks within less than a mile in Central City. Joshua Everett, 27, was shot dead Feb. 2 in the 2800 block of South Johnson Street. Estevan Pleasant, 52, was shot dead Jan. 25 in the 2400 block of Willow Street. Adam Ross, 35, who is the brother of New Orleans performer Big Freedia, was shot dead Jan. 25 in the 2600 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Dalton Bennett, 21, was shot dead Jan. 28 near South Claiborne Avenue and First Street.
Anyone with information about the shooting death is asked to contact NOPD Homicide Detective Everett Briscoe, the lead investigator in the case, at 504-658-5300 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.
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