New Orleans triple slaying may be gang-related, police say

A weekend shooting that left three people dead and seven wounded may have been gang-related, New Orleans police said Monday.

The public is urged to help, Chief Michael Harrison said, noting that the reward for information leading to an arrest has been raised to $25,000.

“There were so many people out there who were standing right there that we believe someone saw something, someone heard something and someone knows something,” Harrison said at a news conference.

Police say two suspects fired “indiscriminately” into a crowd in front of strip mall on South Claiborne Avenue early Sunday. The suspects were wearing hooded sweatshirts and possibly masks, as well as latex gloves, Harrison said.

The Orleans Parish Coroner identified the slain as Kurshaw Jackson, 38; Taiesha Watkins, 27; and Jeremiah Lee, 28.

The shooters stopped over one of those killed and fired repeated rounds, the chief said.

Harrison said Monday that the New Orleans field office of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting in the investigation.

The reward went up to $25,000 after the FBI added $10,000 and the ATF offered $5,000.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement that authorities will focus “every resource necessary to ending this horror and seeing justice done.”

“There is no place in New Orleans for this kind of violence. I speak for everyone in our city when I say we are disgusted, we are infuriated, and we have had more than enough,” Cantrell said. “Three more lives — gone. It has to end. This happened near my neighborhood, on the edge of Broadmoor. It’s unacceptable anywhere.”