One person has died after he and four others were shot in New Orleans on Sunday night along the route of a parade that is part of the lead-up to Mardi Gras, the police said on Monday.
The shooting happened near the intersection of St. Charles Avenue and Terpsichore Street, Karen A. Boudrie, a spokeswoman for the New Orleans Police Department, said on Sunday. It was reported at about 9:30 p.m. during the Krewe of Bacchus Parade, which had started in the afternoon.
One person was taken into custody at the scene “within moments” of the shooting, Michelle Woodfork, the interim superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, said at a news conference on Monday.
Mansour Mbodj, 21, was charged with illegal carrying of a weapon, Superintendent Woodfork said. Two guns were recovered, and the police said they were investigating whether shots had been fired by more than one person.
The victims were taken to a hospital, Superintendent Woodfork said.
The victim who died was “a male between the ages of 15 and 18 years old” whom the police have yet to identify, she said. The other victims — a 4-year-old girl, an 18-year-old man, a 22-year-old woman and a 24-year-old woman — have all been released from the hospital, she said.
The Krewe of Bacchus, with more than 1,600 members and 32 floats, holds its parade each year on the Sunday before Mardi Gras. The parade traditionally ends with a black-tie party that attracts more than 9,000 attendees at a convention center.
Julia Moser, a visitor from Los Angeles who had been enjoying the excitement of the crowd at the parade, said she heard a noise that sounded to her like firecrackers, but her boyfriend quickly realized it was gunfire. He grabbed her hand and started running toward his apartment, she said. While fleeing, they could still hear a marching band jubilantly playing.
“It was sort of a mad dash,” Ms. Moser said. “There were tons of kids around, and I was really nervous one of them would get trampled.”
