New Orleans shootings leave two dead and 10 wounded along parade route

Two people were killed and 10 others were wounded in a pair of separate shootings along a New Orleans parade route and celebration attended by thousands on Sunday, authorities said. There were no immediate arrests.

Including Sunday’s violence, there had been more than 460 mass shootings across the US so far this year, according to the non-partisan Gun Violence Archive.

The archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are killed or wounded. High numbers of mass shootings in the US have driven many to call for more substantial gun control, but Congress has largely refused to heed such pleas.

Sunday marked the second major shooting in the southern US since gunfire marred a homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama on 10 November, leaving one person dead and injuring 16 others, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said.

Officers responding to reports of gunfire shortly after 3.30pm on an avenue in the city’s St Roch neighborhood found eight victims with gunshot wounds, according to a news release from the New Orleans police department. All eight were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Police later said a ninth wounded person arrived at a hospital after getting their own ride there.

About 45 minutes later, police received another report of gunfire as revelers were crossing the Almonaster Avenue bridge, just over half a mile to the north. One person died at the scene and another died at a hospital, police said. A third victim was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and is in stable condition, police said.

No arrests were announced, and no suspect information was released. The St Roch neighborhood is located several blocks north-east and therefore outside the city’s French Quarter neighborhood that is popular with tourists, some of whom were in town on Sunday to watch the Cleveland Browns lose to the New Orleans Saints in an NFL game at the stadium colloquially known as the Superdome.

The Almonaster bridge was closed in both directions during the investigation.

Police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said detectives did not immediately know if the incidents were related.

“They were … different kinds of approaches,” she said of the shootings, which occurred in the area where a “second line” – a musical and dancing celebration following a parade – was taking place.

Thousands had gathered for the annual outing of the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club in the 9th Ward, organizer Oscar Brown told Nola.com.

“It is a wonderful event, and we want to keep it a wonderful event,” Kirkpatrick said.