NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Residents in New Orleans have endured a bloody seven days, including shootings that killed six and injured nine others, including children, police said.
The incidents, several of which occurred in broad daylight and on bustling streets, happened in a year when the city's overall homicide rate has dropped significantly, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune reported one of the incidents took place in the Hollygrove neighborhood where a gunman chased down a woman and her 7-year-old daughter during rush hour, wounding both. In another incident, a grandmother was shot and killed in her home and her 4-year-old grandson was also hit.
Police have not made any arrests in the six fatalities but two teens and a man in his 20s were arrested in connection with a non-fatal shooting.
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The spate of gun violence comes despite an overall downward trend in homicides in 2013. To this point last year, the city had registered 152 killings. The 2013 homicide count in New Orleans stands at 116 to date.
Landrieu said city initiatives to bring an end to gun violence are working despite the frightening events of the last week.
"We launched NOLA For Life in 2012 to bring an end to the relentless drumbeat of violence in New Orleans," the mayor said in a statement. "Today, the number of murders is down 24 percent compared to this time last year, we have indicted 67 individuals that were once terrorizing our city, and we are intervening to offer young men who are most often the perpetrators or victims real opportunities and alternatives through NOLA For Life initiatives like Midnight Basketball, CeaseFire New Orleans and Summer Youth Employment."
