NEW ORLEANS — Five people are recovering after being shot on Bourbon Street just before 2 a.m. Sunday. It happened on the 200 block of Bourbon Street, about a block from Canal Street. So far, no arrests have been made, but police did detain two people for questioning.
"I was just sitting here, right here," said John Snoain, who said he was sitting on the sidewalk along the 200 block of Bourbon Street early Sunday when he heard gunfire. "That's why everybody was running. I only saw one gunshot, right here."
Police said there was an argument and someone pulled out a gun and started shooting into the crowd.
"Anything could have caused it. It's New Orleans. They'll kill you over a scuffed shoe," Snoain said.
Three men and two women were shot. They range in age from 17 to 24, sources told our partners at nola.com. Their injuries are not life-threatening, according to the NOPD.
"They could have been tourists. They had a game last night,” Snoain said.
It was a busy weekend in New Orleans.
"I see it every year during Bayou Classic, every year someone gets shot," a woman who works at a bar on Bourbon Street said. "This is a city where if you're born and raised here for so many generations back you're proud to be from a place like New Orleans because of our culture and how unique we truly are, but after all this stuff goes on in the city, it makes you almost embarrassed to be from New Orleans because it's sad."
"I think the crime on Bourbon Street is just getting a little outrageous," Lorenzo Rice who has worked at a business on Bourbon Street for a year said. "I just feel bad for the tourists. I wish this was a place they could come and enjoy themselves without worrying about protecting themselves."
"This is a great city and people come down here and have fun, people don’t need to see that," Steven Jackson who works at a restaurant on Bourbon Street said.
"I love my job, really and I love to work on Bourbon Street," Sara Ahmed who has worked at a store near where the shooting happened for six years said.
She said she typically feels safe until it gets late.
"Now 5 o'clock is a little dark, I feel nervous and scary when I'm going alone after 5 o'clock, dark," Ahmed said.
"Nighttime is very different than the daytime," Jackson said.
These workers are hoping something will turn the violence around.
"I really would like to see the streets cleaned up, the drugs... I'd like for it to be a safer place for tourists," Rice said.
"They need to hire more police, the government might need to fund New Orleans," the woman who didn't want to be identified said.
Police detained two people for questioning to figure out if they were involved in the early Sunday morning shooting. They took weapons from both.
Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Eighth District at 504-658-6080 or call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 and toll-free at 1-877-903-7867.
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