‘STREET VIOLENCE’ INVESTIGATED

19 hurt in New Orleans shooting

Gunmen open fire on marchers in Mother’s Day parade

New Orleans police officers investigate at Frenchmen and North Villere streets after gunfire injured 19 at a Mother’s Day parade. Police saw three suspects fleeing the area, but no arrests have been made.

NEW ORLEANS — Gunmen opened fire on dozens of people marching in a neighborhood Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, wounding at least 19 people, police said.

The FBI said the shooting appeared to be “street violence” and wasn’t linked to terrorism.

Many of the victims were grazed and most of the wounds weren’t life-threatening, authorities said.

At least three people had serious wounds. No deaths were reported.

The victims included 10 men, seven women, a boy, and a girl. The children, both 10, were grazed and in good condition.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu urged witnesses to come forward with information during a news conference Sunday night at a hospital where gunshot victims were taken.

Mary Beth Romig, a spokesman for the FBI in New Orleans, said federal investigators have no indication that the shooting was an act of terrorism.

As many as 400 people joined in the second-line procession that stretched for about three blocks, though only half that many were in the immediate vicinity of the shooting, said Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas.

Police, who were interspersed with the marchers, saw three suspects running from the scene in the city’s 7th Ward neighborhood. No arrests have been made.

Second-line parades are loose processions in which people dance down the street, often following a brass band.

They can be impromptu or planned and are sometimes described as moving block parties.

A social club called The Original Big 7 organized Sunday’s event. The group was founded in 1996 at the Saint Bernard housing projects, according to its MySpace page.

The neighborhood where the shooting happened is a mix of low-income and middle-class row houses, some boarded up. As of last year, the neighborhood’s population was about 60 percent of its pre-Hurricane Katrina level.

The shootings took place about 1.5 miles from the heart of the French Quarter and near the Treme neighborhood, which has been the centerpiece for the HBO TV series Treme.