ORLEANS PARISH CRIME NEWS

Tracking local crime and police news in New Orleans, Louisiana

The 16 year-old sister of a man fatally shot in front of their family's Gallier Street home last August told a jury in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court today that while she didn't see the face of the man she saw running from the murder scene, she remains certain she identified the right man that night: the defendant Louis Daniels, 22.

A man was shot today at about 1:45 p.m. near the intersection of Dryades and Third streets in Central City.

The victim was transported to a local hospital in an ambulance.

Police are at the scene now, scanning evidence, including more than a dozen shell casings in the street. An update on the man's condition was not immediately available.

David Taylor

A man who police say burglarized at least three homes near Tulane University turned himself in to authorities Tuesday morning, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

David Taylor, 43, faces three counts of burglary of an inhabited dwelling and one count of possession of stolen property, according to Orleans Parish jail records.

Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneA crime camera at the corner of St. Roch Avenue and North Villere Street was not operating when Kendrick Thomas, 22, was killed nearby Monday. Thomas' stepfather, Jimmie Ricks, said everyone in their St. Roch neighborhood knows the camera doesn't work.

More than a dozen of Kendrick Thomas' friends stood outside his house Tuesday afternoon, steps from the spot where he was shot dead the night before.

Jennifer Zdon / The Times-PicayuneActor Wendell Pierce, center, talks with Chief Warren Riley during the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation's annual fundraiser Monday at the Hilton.

On television, Wendell Pierce is an affable grump of a homicide detective working the streets of a crime-wracked, blighted inner city.

In reality, Pierce, 46, is a Katrina survivor, a native New Orleanian, and a community developer with big ideas.

Pierce drew on his experience as a fictional cop Monday in a speech at a benefit luncheon for the local law enforcement community, telling the audience about the real-life insight into police work he has gained from his role on the critically acclaimed and now-defunct crime drama, "The Wire."

Brandon Tate

New Orleans homicide investigators want to question a 24-year-old Gentilly man in connection to several open murder cases in the city, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

Police say that in the course of investigating the slayings, Brandon Tate -- who was last living in the 3900 block of Clermont Drive -- was identified as a person of interest by Homicide Detective Nicholas Gernon.

A 21-year-old man was shot to death Monday night outside his home in the 8th Ward.

The man killed during an apparent hit-and-run in Gert Town early Saturday was David Williams, 49, said coroner's chief investigator John Gagliano on Tuesday.

The former overseer of the New Orleans Police Department's evidence room churned out a steady stream of memos to supervisors warning them that the facility's lax security and manpower shortages were a "recipe for disaster."

An Orleans Parish judge has thrown out a fresh charge in an old murder case, finding that prosecutors waited too long to take the suspect to trial.

The grandmother of a 19-year-old who was murdered Wednesday night in the 7th Ward says her grandson was bringing her groceries when a killer took his life.

Superintendent Warren Riley

New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley acknowledged for the first time Thursday that $19,000 in cash is missing from the department's property room and promised to investigate the matter fully.

The department's Public Integrity Bureau will conduct a criminal investigation, though Riley said it's still unclear whether the money was stolen or somehow misplaced.

Ramon Antonio Vargas / The Times-PicayuneBrian Berthiaume, a guitarist with the local band Bad Off, foiled a burglary at a home in lower Broadmoor and held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived. He discovered the crime in progress while walking his dog Buckley.

Ashley Alden may never have known that a man rummaged around her basement for a half-hour while she and her two children were upstairs in their Broadmoor living room Monday if her rock-guitar-playing neighbor hadn't taken his dog for a walk.

A 19-year-old New Orleans man was shot dead on a 7th Ward sidewalk as he walked home Wednesday night, police said.

Investigators are looking for a man they believe is responsible for a rash of burglaries in the Carrollton area over the last two weeks, not far from Tulane and Loyola universities, according to an e-mail alert from the New Orleans Police Department's 2nd District commander.

Susan PoagU.S. Attorney Jim Letten addressses the media after State Sen. Derrick Shepherd pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering at the Hale Boggs Federal Courthouse in New Orleans Oct. 10.

Boy, was I pleased when Barack Obama won the election. At last, I thought to myself, we'll be rid of U.S. Attorney Jim Letten. Letten is a newspaperman's nightmare. You can't laugh at him because he never says anything stupid. You can't blast him because he is scrupulously fair. He works tirelessly putting crooks in stir, but is a most amiable fellow. He is an absolute dead loss.

So, thanks for nothing, Mary Landrieu. Just because Letten has done an exemplary job during the Bush administration, the doyenne of Louisiana Democrats does not think he should be replaced.

Councilwoman Stacy Head has long questioned the effectiveness of the city's crime camera program.

Under fire for crime cameras that critics say often don't work and haven't proved an effective tool for fighting crime, officials of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's administration tried Tuesday to redefine the equipment's purpose to justify spending another $1.6 million on maintenance next year.

At a City Council budget hearing, council members Stacy Head and Arnie Fielkow questioned the proposed expenditure, saying they need proof the cameras are providing a crime-fighting benefit.

Saying that it could adversely affect ongoing litigation related to the Youth Study Center, the city attorney today successfully asked the City Council to block a three-minute video that the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana wanted to show during the public-comment portion of a city budget hearing.

The hearing was called to help determine whether the council should approve $2.5 million for the controversial Youth Study Center, a detention facility.

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneA crime camera at Frenchmen and North Claiborne was not working during a murder on nearby Frenchman Street this year.

Under fire for expensive crime cameras that often don't work and haven't proven an effective tool for police, Nagin administration officials today tried to redefine the equipment as serving a larger "public safety" purpose to justify spending another $1.6 million on maintenance next year.

At a council budget hearing this morning, Council members Stacy Head and Arnie Fielkow questioned the proposed expenditure for 2009, saying they needed more proof the cameras were providing a real crime-fighting benefit.

Three days after her brother's brutal murder, the oldest sister of victim Kevin Rowe says she is still desperate for information about his killer.

A 25-year-old man was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of bashing four vehicles in the same Faubourg Marigny block just moments earlier.

Crimestoppers has scheduled a press conference this afternoon to announce an increase in the reward for information leading to the arrest and indictment of the person or persons responsible for the murder of Kirsten Brydum.

Jimmie Warner arrested, charged with second-degree murder

New Orleans police on Sunday nabbed a 19-year-old man they believe murdered a 15-year-old, mechanically skilled boy in the St. Roch neighborhood Saturday evening.

Jimmie Warner was booked into the Orleans Parish jail, charged with the second-degree murder of Javon Green, whom chief coroner's investigator John Gagliano identified Sunday.

Attorney Rick Teissier

A defense attorney attempting to retrieve a client's money, initially seized during a drug bust, said he discovered that almost half of it was missing from the New Orleans Police Department's property room.

Since last week, attorney Rick Teissier has filed two motions at Criminal District Court to get back $35,903 in cash seized from his client during a September 2007 arrest by New Orleans police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Both motions were granted by Judge Dennis Waldron, according to court minutes.

New Orleans police are asking the public to help find a stolen white, two-door 1999 Toyota Camry that "may be involved in other crimes."

Christopher Buckley

A New Orleans Police officer who resigned last month following his arrest on rape charges appeared in court Thursday morning to face additional sex assault allegations from the same victim.

Upon reviewing the alleged victim's statements against Christopher Buckley, police decided to book him on additional charges of sexual battery and indecent behavior with a juvenile, according to court records.

A 72-year-old French Market jewelry merchant ended his marriage to a 25-year-old Nicaraguan woman by shooting her, wounding her critically, then shooting himself, fatally, during an argument in their eastern New Orleans trailer Saturday night, police said.

A man was killed early this morning on U.S. 11 at Irish Bayou, the New Orleans Police Department reported.

A man was shot to death shortly before 9 a.m. in the 1900 block of Piety Street, the New Orleans Police Department reported.

An eastern New Orleans man shot and killed himself Saturday night after shooting his wife in the head, New Orleans Police reported.

An eastern New Orleans man shot and killed himself Saturday night after shooting his wife in the head, New Orleans Police reported.

MATTHEW HINTON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEOfficer C. Walker, from left, Sgrt S. Joseph, and officer K.W. Jackson display the guns collected in the first hour of a no questions asked "Horns for Guns" event at the Treme Community Center. Community groups, police, musicians and educators will held a "Horns for Guns" event Saturday, November 1, 2008 at two locations in New Orleans, offering musical instruments or cameras to people who turn in weapons.

The revolver, with its bone-hued handle and swing-out cylinder, clunked into the milk crate with a dull thump.

A man once known as perhaps Louisiana's top specialist in gaming law pleaded guilty Friday to bilking the white-shoe law firm he worked for and some of its casino clients of $30 million, then stashing the bulk of it in a Swiss bank account.

An 18-year-old is behind bars after he shot at police officers during a foot chase in the Warehouse District this morning, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

Former Adams and Reese law partner Jamie Perdigao appears to have struck a deal with the federal government to plead guilty in the long-running and lurid case against him, in which he stands accused of stealing $30 million from his former employer and stashing the bulk of it in a Swiss bank account.

Gunplay Thursday night in the Irish Channel ended with a man being shot in the arm, police said.

Community groups, police, musicians and educators will hold a "Horns for Guns" event Saturday at two locations in New Orleans, offering musical instruments or cameras to people who turn in weapons.

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneOn Wednesday, October 29, 2008, New Orleans Police investigate the shooting death of a 23-year-old man in the 6000 block of Beechcraft Drive. The murder, which was reported about 2:40 pm, was near the scene of a double murder that happened June 5 of this year near the brick house in the background of the photo.

A 23-year-old man was shot and killed next to his idling car at about 2:40 p.m. today in eastern New Orleans.

Carl Coleman

More than four years after admitting a brazen bribe scheme to loot Orleans Parish school construction contracts, an insurance department manager and a contractor were each sentenced Wednesday to less than two years in prison.

Jeff Pollitt -- the contractor who paid about $315,000 in bribes to secure $4 million in fire-repair contracts on three schools that burned in late 2001 -- received 16 months in federal prison. The man he bribed, school system risk manager Carl Coleman, got 22 months.

A 21-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly tried to run down New Orleans police officers who had pulled him over because they suspected he was carrying narcotics, police said.

An Orleans Parish jury couldn't agree on a verdict Wednesday in the trial of 23-year-old Kevin Amison, accused triggerman in a 2006 rampage that left four dead on a dead-end street in Treme, sending prosecutors back to square one in the first capital murder trial held since Hurricane Katrina struck three years ago.

An Orleans Parish jury is deliberating tonight over whether an eyewitness and circumstantial evidence are enough to find 23-year-old Kevin Amison guilty of a 2006 quadruple murder in Treme.

A 23-year-old man was shot and killed next to his idling car at about 2:40 p.m. today in eastern New Orleans.

The shooting took place at about 2:40 p.m. in the 6000 block of Beechcraft Drive, a cul-de-sac off of Downman Road.

A burglary ring responsible for as many as 15 break-ins in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes has been broken up, the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office said.

When junk man Terry Mann was paid a labor rate by the manager of an Uptown auto shop to dispose of car parts, he was also given fees and gas money to do so properly at a dump site in Metairie.

But on Tuesday, Mann, 52, dumped the parts about four blocks away from the shop, pocketed the gas and fee money -- and landed in jail, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

A coroner's investigator this morning identified the 25-year-old guest of the Travelodge motel on Chef Menteur Highway near Downman Road who was shot "multiple times" and found dead in his room about 7:40 Tuesday night.

Michael DeMocker / The Times-PicayuneANew Orleans police officer flags down the ambulance as she stands over a man shot in the 2100 block of Felicity Street.

New Orleans Police are investigating a midday shooting in Central City that left a man in critical condition Tuesday.

The shooting took place at about 1:30 p.m. in the 2100 block of Felicity Street, said NOPD Officer Garry Flot.

A Marrero man died in the front yard of a Westwego home Monday night after someone shot him several times, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

As anti-graffiti activist Fred Radtke awaits his day in court on charges of obliterating a Bywater artists' mural painted on a cinderblock wall, the artists showed up this weekend and, once again with the wall owner's permission, began a new mural that they completed Monday.

ELIOT KAMENITZ / THE TIMES PICAYUNEThe mural on the cinder block wall of Southern Coating and Waterproofing has been restored after it was painted partially over with gray paint. Monday, October 27, 2008.

MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEA woman grieves where Robert Santinac was shot to death on Music Street on Sept. 6. While rapes and assaults were down substantially in the third quarter of 2008, murders remained almost flat as compared to the same time last year.

Violent crime in New Orleans plummeted by one-third in the third quarter of 2008 compared with the same period last year, according to statistics released Monday by the New Orleans Police Department.

The 33 percent drop came even as NOPD dropped its standard practice since Hurricane Katrina of using per-capita statistics for comparisons, attributing rising crime to rising population. In other words, the actual number of violent crimes recorded fell steeply even as the city grew substantially in population, the department reported.

The first capital murder trial in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina opened today with prosecutors seeking the death penalty for a 23-year-old man accused of a quadruple murder on a dark dead-end street in Treme the summer after the levees broke.

Chris Rose, a columnist for The Times-Picayune, was arrested Friday night and booked in an alleged domestic violence incident.

Authorities believe a 69-year-old man started a morning fire that left a family homeless and resulted in the injury of a firefighter in Central City.

Throughout the afternoon Saturday, strangers made small talk and sat in the sun, painting on wooden planks and assorted scraps of wood and other materials.

DINAH ROGERS / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEFamilies and friends of victims of violence participate Saturday, Oct. 26, 2008, in a "Paint Party for Peace" at the Press Street Park at the corner of Dauphine Street. The signs, clothing and portraits painted will be part of a Peace Pilgrimage to be held Nov. 1st, which will honor the 540 New Orleanians lost to violence since Hurricane Katrina.

The Gray Ghost finally went too far.

New Orleans police arrested four Sarah T. Reed High School students Friday after school security guards found two handguns and marijuana on the campus, according to a police spokesman.

A New Orleans man murdered a stranger in 2002 so he could ride away in the victim's Pontiac Grand Prix with custom chrome rims, a jury said Friday.

A 39-year-old man who was shot Thursday night in Hollygrove has died, according to the coroner's office.

Orleans Parish, already home to 17 neighborhood security and improvement districts financed by special property taxes or fees, could gain six more such districts if voters approve proposals on the Nov. 4 ballot.

New Orleans police arrested a popular L.E. Rabouin High School choir teacher this week at the school after a student allegedly received an obscene cell phone photo sent from the teacher's phone, according to a police report filed in Criminal District Court.

The teacher, Damon M. Williams, faces an obscenity charge, according to the police report. Williams, 26, was in the Orleans Parish jail on $20,000 bond Thursday, according to law enforcement records. A 17-year-old male student told police he "received a picture message of a penis" to his cell phone from Williams' phone, according to the police report.

A 39-year-old man was in critical condition Thursday night after being shot several times in a part of Hollygrove that residents there described as a quiet block.

The veteran New Orleans police officer booked this week in the rape of a 13-year-old girl has a history of rape complaints against him, the department announced Wednesday.

SUSAN POAG/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE Just before noon today, NOPD officers responded to a call of multiple shots fired at an apartment in a complex at 2110 Cypress Acres in Algiers. An unidentified male was found shot to death inside of apartment 39.

New Orleans police are on the scene of a homicide in Algiers, where a man was found dead in an apartment complex in the 2100 block of Cypress Acres.

Stay with Nola.com for more details.

Christopher Buckley

New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley said this morning that the NOPD officer arrested yesterday for raping a 13-year-old girl has a history of sexual assault complaints made by young girls.

Riley said similar allegations were made against Buckley in 2001 and 2003 and the NOPD opened internal investigations both times.

A veteran New Orleans Police officer was arrested and booked this afternoon for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl.

A jury found Gwendolyn Moyo guilty today on all charges in her federal fraud trial, the third conviction in an international financial scam that brought down former state Sen. Derrick Shepherd, who pleaded guilty and resigned days before the trial began last week.

One day -- Sept. 20 -- seemed to draw the focus of much of Monday night's 6th Ward crime summit at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, called to address the recent spate of violence that included 11 killings and shootings over the past two months.

Just days before Our Lady of Good Counsel Church is scheduled to close in a reorganization ordered by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, four members of the congregation filed a Civil District Court lawsuit Monday aimed at stopping the move.