New Orleans park shooting injures 16

Authorities are still trying to determine what touched off a shootout between two groups of gunmen that wounded 17 people in a crowded New Orleans park, a police spokesman said. There were two groups of people gathered at the event, those who attended the parade and those who were participating in the video.

The New Orleans Police Department said word of an impromptu music video being shot inside the park must have “circulated through social media”.

Ten women and seven men – 11 of them younger than 21 – were injured and received treatment at area hospitals, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said in a news conference.

“This brazen act of violence, I think is akin to domestic terrorism”, Landrieu said.

New Orleans police were also able to identify a suspect on Sunday in an attempted murder case.

According to police, the block party was not permitted. NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison is asking residents to tell police what they know about the incident: “What we need more than anything else is for witnesses to come forward and tell us what they saw”.

The police learned from witnesses that “there were two groups that were firing shots back and forth at each other, and then ran off after each other on foot”, Gamble said.

Gamble said each of the 16 victims suffered either a “direct gunshot wound” or a “graze wound” and all were listed in stable condition, though the full extent of their injuries was still to be ascertained.

Harrison pointed to Monday’s capture of Euric Cain, the suspect wanted in the shooting of Tulane University medical student Peter Gold, as an example of how tips from the public help lead to arrests.

Police gather evidence after a shooting at a playground on November 22, 2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“I am outraged at an unbelievable level at the people who decided that everyone’s life in that park didn’t matter”, said Landrieu.