Shooting Occurs On Xavier University Campus Leaving 1 Dead, 2 Wounded
A woman was killed and two others wounded in a shooting at a graduation ceremony on the campus of Xavier University in New Orleans on Tuesday.
Police say a fight broke out between two individuals in the parking area following the ceremony at Morris Jeff Community School, which took place on the HBCU’s campus, according to local station WWL. The altercation resulted in other individuals producing and firing their weapons. Two or three people have been detained for questioning.
Two male victims were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, according to New Orleans police chief Christoher Goodly. One received a wound in the shoulder and the other in the leg. The deceased individual has not yet been identified and described only as an older woman.
"This did not have to happen," Goodly said. "We had a good amount of security here - interior coverage and exterior coverage. Xavier Police were on the scene along with Second District Police."
Witnesses said they heard a commotion at the ceremony and saw people fighting before the gunfire started. Another said the woman who was killed was the grandmother of a friend.
"One of my friends' grandma got shot right in the middle of the street and she didn't have anything to do with it," the witness said.
The shooting comes as the nation continues to wrestle with the topic of gun violence, which has long been a major, ongoing problem in New Orleans and other urban communities. Recently, gun violence has become more urgent due to the problem of mass shootings most recently in Buffalo, where 10 people were killed at a supermarket by a white supremacist on May 14 and at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., on May 24, where an 18-year-old man killed 21 people, including 19 schoolchildren.
