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New Orleans Playground Shootings: 16 Shot At Bunny Friend Park

By Tara Dodrill
Published on: 00:16 PST, Nov 23, 2015

A New Orleans playground shooting left 16 people injured on Sunday night. The shooting at Bunny Friend Park began after a verbal dispute between two groups of people escalated. About 500 people gathered at the park in the 9th Ward of the Crescent City to film a music video.

Ambulances took at least 10 victims of the New Orleans playground shooting to local hospitals for treatment. NOLA police report that six additional victims were taken to the hospital in private vehicles following the shooting at Bunny Friend Playground.

Photos and videos captured in the aftermath of the NOLA shooting reveal first responders quickly wheeling victims away on gurneys as others writhe in pain on the ground awaiting their turn for treatment. The extent of the injuries of the Bunny Friend Playground shooting victims has not yet been released to the public. New Orleans Police Department statements indicate that no deaths were immediately reported after the incident.

NOPD representative Tyler Gamble told the media that a music video was being filmed at the park without the appropriate permit. Law enforcement officers were on the way to break up the gathering of 500 people engaged in the filming when the New Orleans playground shooting occurred, Fox News reports.

According to New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison, officers were approximately one block away from the park when passersby flagged them down to let them know what was going on at the Bunny Friend Playground.

https://youtu.be/WAcSRLtcsyk

Joseph Jordan lives across the street from the park. He and a friend, identified as Raven, told reporters that they heard gunshots not long before someone in the neighborhood ran to inform Raven that her 14-year-old niece had been shot. The teenager was reportedly shot three times in the leg and was among the victims rushed to local hospitals by first responders.

During an interview with the Time-Picayune, that the large gathering was part of an after-party that followed a second-line (neighborhood parade) hosted by the Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club. According to a report about the playground shooting in the local newspaper, multiple witnesses said they saw a man with a “silver machine gun” flee Bunny Friend Park. The same witnesses said the shooting continued as the man ran away. It could be possible that the silver machine gun was a prop for the music video and not a real weapon.

Law enforcement investigators have not yet named a suspect or suspects in the playground shootings. New Orleans police chief Michael Harrison said he believed there were several shooters. The Nine Times Social and Pleasure Club second line had permits, and Chief Harrison said they had staffed the neighborhood parade “pretty heavily.” The music video filming may have been separately organized, according to police statements.

“Detectives are still working to determine the extent of all of the victims’ injuries,” an NOPD release said. “Information on the age and gender of all victims involved as well as the extent of their injuries will be provided when it is available.”

The New Orleans playground shooting is the largest mass shooting in the city since the Mother’s Day second line of 2013, NOLA.com reports. Mayor Mitch Landrieu said violence similar to what occurred at Bunny Friend Park is “not something you can tolerate in the city.

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

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