'Ridiculous' on this day: 5 shot on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in New Orleans
By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News
Five people standing outside a grocery store on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in New Orleans were wounded in a drive-by shooting on Monday, police said.
None of the injuries was considered life-threatening, officials said.
The incident took place at the intersection of LaSalle Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, police said.
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Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas, who was among those who responded to the scene, told NBC station WDSU that six teenage boys or young men were outside a small grocery when a late-model white sedan drove past, with shots fired from inside the car.
The car then sped off.
A New Orleans Police Department official told the station that a surveillance camera captured the incident and that video recordings were being reviewed.
The violence happened shortly after New Orleans' annual parade honoring slain civil rights activist and nonviolence standard-bearer Martin Luther King Jr. passed through the neighborhood.
The irony was not lost on police or residents.
"It's ridiculous this violence happened on this day," one witness told WDSU.
"It's the state of affairs in our nation that young men do not heed the words of Martin Luther King Jr.," Serpas told the Times-Picayune, which also reported that the shooting did not appear to be linked to the parade.
