New Orleans’ Bourbon Street shootings investigation is in its fourth day with little indication police are closing in on two gunmen they believe are responsible for wounding 10 people on the city’s most storied entertainment strip, says the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “We’re making headway,” Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said, speaking with Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Police issued a new video showing the same young man described Monday as a “person of interest” in the latest case of New Orleans gun violence to garner widespread attention. The overriding theme of a news conference attended by city leaders centered on the police department’s need for help. Help from public tipsters to solve this case, and help from state and federal law enforcement agencies and government leaders to turn back a tide of violent crime relentlessly eating away at the city’s fun-loving image.
After the mass shooting that wounded five men and five women, Landrieu said he was “making a clarion call to every level of government to help protect our streets.” Landrieu has asked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal to authorize a permanent deployment of another 100 Louisiana State Police troopers to aid the city’s policing efforts. He asked federal officials for a “surge team” of agents from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives), U.S. Marshals Service or any other law enforcement agency that can lend manpower to combat street crime. He sent a letter to Louisiana’s congressional delegation and President Barack Obama, imploring the federal government to “get back in the business of fighting crime and help stem this epidemic” of urban gun violence nationwide.