A spasm of violence bloodied Canal Street in the early morning hours on Sunday, leaving 10 people shot in one of the worst mass shootings in New Orleans in years.
[UPDATE: New Orleans police, correcting earlier statements, said 10 people were shot, not 11.]
New Orleans police said that two victims were in critical condition after gunfire broke out in the 700 block of Canal Street just before 3:30 a.m. Few details were released as of mid-morning Sunday, but the street near the corner of Bourbon and Canal was littered with evidence markers that normally denote shell casings.
NOPD Supt. Shaun Ferguson said early Sunday morning that a person of interest has been detained, but it wasn’t clear what involvement — if any –the person had in the shooting. No arrests had been made as of Sunday morning.
Victims were taken to University Medical Center and Tulane Medical Center. One person arrived at an area hospital via a private vehicle.
The mass shooting came at the end of a big night of revelry in and around the French Quarter as tens of thousands of visitors were downtown for the Bayou Classic football game between Grambling State University and Southern University.
