Two die, kids injured in drive-by

A drive-by shooting in a New Orleans neighbourhood that has struggled with crime since being ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 left a man and an 18-year-old woman dead and five others wounded, three of them children.

A woman and two children, aged 2 and 4, were in critical condition and a 13-year-old girl and a 37-year-old woman were in stable condition after the shooting in the Lower Ninth Ward, a police showed streams of people walking out of a liquor store carrying bottles of alcohol, and in some cases protesters were standing atop police cars or taunting officers who stood stoic, often in riot gear.

Other witnesses reported seeing people vandalise police cars and kick in windows.

Television footage showed windows busted out of a TV station van.

“Right now, the small group of people are creating a huge mess,” spokesman, said. He said all were in front of a house when men in a dark car opened fire and then sped off. The Lower Ninth, a predominantly black neighbourhood less than 8km from the bustling tourist district of the French Quarter, was overwhelmed by Hurricane Katrina’s floods in 2005. Ferguson’s Mayor, James Knowles, told St Louis KTVI-TV. “Contributing to the unrest that is going on is not going to help . . . We’re only hurting ourselves, only hurting our community, hurting our neighbours. There’s nothing productive from this.”

As the investigation of Brown’s death progresses, “we understand people want to vent their frustrations. We understand they want to speak out,” Knowles added. “We’re going to obviously try to urge calm.”

Earlier, a few hundred protesters