A Murder in NOLA (a bit long)

[rachilders]

This is one reason I carry a gun, my wife carries and two of my older (over 21) children carry...

There was a knock at my front door just before midnight last night. It was my mother-in-law, who owns the house next door to mine. I immediately knew something wasn't right since my 76-year-old mother-in-law is usually in bed by 9 PM. When I answered the door, it was obvious she was upset and she asked me to go wake up my wife. I asked what was wrong, but she only said to wake up Vickie (my wife). I went to our bedroom to get my wife, but she met me at the door, asking who was going on. I told her what happened, she went downstairs and asked her mother what was wrong. My mother-in-law told us she'd received a phone call a few minutes earlier from her daughter (my wife's older sister) in New Orleans. My sister-in-law said that around 11:15 Monday evening, her daughter's boyfriend had been shot and killed in a friends front yard, about two blocks from where they lived. At this point, there is little known about what happened other than where and when it happened, that he was at a friends house and the two shooters drove a white SUV.

I lived in New Orleans for 15 years and only moved when my wife's job required her to relocate to Texas. In fact, my sister-in-law moved FROM Texas to New Orleans about 12 years ago at the suggestion of my wife and I after a nasty divorce. They worked at the same office, often rode to work together and our houses were only a few blocks apart. Her daughters spent almost as much time at our house as there own. I often joked I was the head of two households because I would frequently (several times a week usually) pick-up one of the girls at school after band or soccer practice and was at their house almost weekly to make some minor repair to their house or car. I lived in New Orleans from 1976-'80 and '90 to '03. This was not a "bad" neighborhood, which is why I bought a home there. My wife and I took walks around the West Bank sub-division of 30,000 many evenings before we moved to Texas and never felt threatened. Since the development was built in the mid 70's, there had only been one murder; a domestic dispute gone bad in the late 80's. The worst crimes I can remember hearing about in our neighborhood were the odd burglary or theft of a bicycle or other property out of a yard. I guess Katrina changed the neighborhood in more ways than one...

While ANY murder is a tragedy, this one obviously hits particularly close to home. The boyfriend - his name is Jonathan - had been my niece's high school sweetheart since taking her to the senior prom. His mother is a nurse and he had just been accepted into EMT training, which was to begin next week. Both he and my niece turned 21 this past March. At her birthday party, he'd given her an engagement ring and asked her to marry him. Even more heart breaking is at the time he was shot, he was talking to her on his cell phone. She heard the shots, heard him cry he was hit and couldn't breath, then heard the shooters (there were two of them in a SUV) say "Take the cell phone". Before the ambulance arrived at the hospital, he was already dead.

I knew this young man very well. After hurricane Katrina flooded NOLA in '05, my sister-in-law and her kids stayed with her mother while he and another neighbor from New Orleans lived with us for almost 3 months. He had joined the Marines a month earlier, but in bootcamp it was discovered he had a disqualifying medical condition and was given a discharge. He had only been home 24 hours - he had not even unpacked yet - when Katrina hit and he evacuated with my sister-in-law.

While staying with us after Katrina, I took him to my gun club a few times and he became interested in pistol shooting. After his girlfriend was robbed by a mugger a few months after they returned home, he became interested in concealed carry. On a visit over the holidays last year, I let him shoot a few of my carry guns and try a few holsters on for "fit" and Jonathan decided he wanted to apply for a Louisiana CC permit when he turned 21. He turned 21 on March 30th and was killed on April 30th. Maybe, if he'd had the permit and had carried a gun last night, he might still be alive today. In one more twist of fate, my wife and her mother were already set to go to NOLA later this week to attend another niece's graduation from Holy Cross College over the weekend. Now, it seems they will be attending a funeral as well.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[P95Carry]

Bob, that is just so tragic ........ and yes, just possibly if the young man had been armed and aware he could well still be with us.

I wonder if the scumbags will be found - but sounds like the sorta deal where they will just disappear - to maybe attack and kill again.

Yes - I can see it is indeed very ''close to home'' - tragically so.

[mmwb]

My sincerest condolences.

[SonofASniper]

I'm so sorry.

[Janq]

Damn. :(

Condolences to your family.

- Janq

[pax]

Deepest sympathy.

pax

[Redneck Repairs]

Damm man , Please offer my as well as the entire board's condolences to his survivors . He truly sounded like a fine young man from your post . May his family find some peace knowing they had such a man in thier midst.

[limatunes]

What a horrible situation. I can't imagine how hard it had been and will be for your niece.

My prayers with you and your family.

[Rob72]

God be with you.

[rachilders]

FWIW, the police have two suspects now in custody and are 99+% sure they have the right men. There is no motive yet, but they think it might have been a case of mistaken identity. This won't change the outcome or make the family feel better, but it's good to know he wasn't doing anything wrong and that the shooters won't get away with murder.

Another update came later this morning from the family. My niece was on the scene within a minute of the shooting and Jonathan was still awake. He complained of not being able to breath and said he wasn't able to move or feel his legs. According to the doctor who treated him, Jonathan was shot once in the upper stomach. The bullet passed through and severed his spine. It now looks like even if there had been a medical person on the scene when the shooting happened, there was little that could have been done.

One final irony happened after the shooting, when the ambulance was called. Jonathan's step-father is an EMT (he recommended Jonathan for the job he was to begin training for next week) and in a strange twist of fate, was a member of the team that answered the emergency call. It was his step-father who worked on Jonathan enroute to the hospital and actually discovered the bullet wound! After Jonathan was pronounced dead, he was also the person who had to break the news to his mother. I can only pray to God that I'm never placed in a position like that!

[OD*]

My sincerest condolences and sympathies to you and yours.

[OfClanMcnab]

That is terrible, and I am very sorry for your family.

This is the kind of thing that only a practiced sense of situational awareness could have prevented, or at least given him a chance. How could he have known that the white SUV driving by contained his killers? One minute he is on the phone, the next someone is pulling a gun on him. Hopefully we can all learn from this incident and perhaps be a little better prepared.

[dr_cmg]

My condolences to you and your family and to the family of this young man and our prayers as well. I lived in NO for 14 years from 1981-95 and never had any incidents, but knew several who did. By the early 90s the city was in a real down hill spiral and we decided to leave. It was almost 5 years later before we moved, but we have never regretted getting out.

Katrina did indeed make a bad situation even worse. There is a great opportunity for a great comeback provided there is some leadership. Unfortunately given the opportunity to get new leadership last year the people there decided to keep the same failed politicians in power. I often wonder about people who keep doing the same failed thing over and over expecting to get different results.

Please keep us informed of the progress of this situation.

[me]

MAN THIS SUCKS. my sympathies

[Miggy]

I just don't have the words.... so sad. My condolences