NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The shots that injured six people at the Balcony Bar on Magazine Street on Friday evening (April 29) appear to have targeted a known New Orleans gang member who was recently freed after the a failed murder case against him, police sources said. Fox 8.
Authorities speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed Nairobi Davis, 23, was one of two men injured when gunmen stopped and opened fire, after spotting him leaving the Uptown New bar Orleans.
Four women also hit in the legs and lower body – in the rain of around 50 bullets – appear to have been collateral damage for the gunmen who fled the scene. The women, ages 23 to 35, arrived at the hospital in “stable” condition, New Orleans police said.
The 27-year-old man accompanying Davis reportedly fired back, leading the NOPD to describe the 10:17 p.m. incident as a “shooting” in its initial account of the scene. No arrests have been made and police have not identified the gunmen behind the exchange.
Neither Mayor LaToya Cantrell nor NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson has commented on the mass shooting in the Garden District, which happened the first weekend thousands of tourists arrived for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. .
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Neighborhood resident Kristen Dugas said she and a friend were sitting on a bench talking outside a nearby Magazine Street business when the incident happened.
“A car slowed down, (but) no one thought about it,” Dugas said. “Nothing was suspicious. And then we heard what sounded like firecrackers, the chain of firecrackers that the kids set off. So we stayed where we were.
“It wasn’t until there was a break and a second round (of shooting) that we saw people getting out of the way, which made us want to move. … Nobody really ran. Everyone just moved a bit slowly, as if confused as to what was going on.
Davis was arrested six months ago, charged with killing two men and wounding two others in a quadruple shooting outside a church in the 3800 block of Annunciation Street. Davis was warned Oct. 13, a week after the shooting that claimed the lives of 25-year-old Derrick Copelin and 19-year-old Zernell Lee.
Davis was first jailed in lieu of $600,000 bond. But court records show Orleans Parish Magistrate Jonathan Friedman reduced that bond to $80,000 on December 16. Davis posted that bond and was free the next day.
Davis’ bail bond was dissolved after the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office denied the double murder case against him on March 15.
An explanation for the decision was not immediately available with the prosecutor’s office closed for the weekend.
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