Manhunt underway after New Orleans gunmen shoot 17

The night began as it often does in the Big Easy with lively parties stretching block to block in the city’s Upper 9th Ward.

It ended in a neighborhood park where gunshots drowned out the music, sent 17 people, including a 10-year-old, to a hospital with gunshot wounds and launched police on a citywide manhunt for the perpetrators.

Hundreds of people witnessed the shooting late Sunday in the Bunny Friend Park, but Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he’s frustrated that few have come forward to identify who committed an act he likened to “domestic terrorism.”

“It’s really hard to police against a bunch of guys who decide to pull out guns and settle disputes with 300 people between them,” Landrieu said Mon- day. The shots broke out late Sunday as a group of as many as 500 gathered to film an impromptu music video. Police Su- perintendent Michael Harrison said police did not know how many shooters there were.

“We are coming after you,” Landrieu said, speaking of the shooters. He said most victims were out of the hospital.

Witnesses said the gathering at the playground followed the annual second line parade by the Nine Times Social & Pleasure Club, which took place a block or two from the shooting scene. Second line parades are “the de- scendants of the New Orleans’ famous jazz funerals and ... they carry many of the same traditions with them,” according to FrenchQuarter.com.

Members of Nine Times said the party at the playground wasn’t their event. “I was back in Baton Rouge by the time I heard about the shooting,” Raymond Williams, 52, told The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune.

“It’s really hard to police against ... guys who ... pull out guns and settle disputes with 300 people between them.”

Mayor Mitch Landrieu