NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A shooting outside a well-known New Orleans restaurant Friday killed an employee, and one bullet penetrated the restaurant and wounded a Chicago tourist visiting for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Interim New Orleans police Superintendent Michelle Woodfork told reporters Saturday that the shooting happened outside Mandina’s Restaurant in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood. No suspects have yet been named.
Woodfork said police believe two assailants targeted the waiter, whom family members identified to The Times-Picayune of New Orleans as 23-year-old Hilbert Walker III.
A private security guard returned fire, Woodfork said, and was not injured. Diners told local news outlets that they dived to the floor seeking cover and that police didn’t let them leave for more than an hour.
The 54-year-old Chicago woman was visiting for Jazz Fest and was at Mandina’s “to celebrate the birthday of a friend,” when she was shot, Woodfork said. She did not say what condition the tourist was in.
The shooting caused alarm in New Orleans, a city with an economy dependent on tourism. It came on the first day of the two-weekend Jazz Fest, one of the busiest tourist periods in the city.
