At Least 16 People Injured In Shooting At New Orleans Park

November 23, 2015

At least 16 people were injured when shooting suddenly broke out in a New Orleans park Sunday evening, police said.

Hundreds of people were gathered at Bunny Friend Playground in the city’s Upper Ninth Ward to record a music video when two groups began firing at each other, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

None of the injuries was described as life-threatening.

Ten of the victims were taken to the hospital by paramedics, while six others got there on their own. The Times-Picayune reported that there was a 17th victim, but no additional information was available.

Michael Harrison, superintendent of police, told WWL-TV that people had gathered in the park for the making of a video that was “probably” advertised on social media:

“There were hundreds of people, upwards of 500 people probably, in this playground when this erupted. It was an unpermitted, unplanned thing, so we did not know about it until we learned that these people were in the playground, and our officers were then dispatched to come and remove them from the playground.”

The Times-Picayune released a video of the shooting’s aftermath.

City officials appealed to witnesses to step forward with information about the incident. Mayor Mitch Landrieu told WWL that it was “really hard to police against a bunch of guys who decide to pull out guns and settle their disputes with 300 people in between them”:

“That’s just not something you can tolerate in the city. And, again, at the end of day it’s going to require the people who were in this park to basically say theyve had enough, and they’re not going to put themselves in harm’s way and give us information so the police can do their job.”