111 Human Beings

As of August 1, 2007, there have been 111 murders in New Orleans this year. With 212 days in the year completed, that comes to an average of one murder every 1.909 days – basically, a murder every other day. If that average stays the same all year, we will end 2007 with 191 murders. In a city of 300,000 people, that comes to a murder rate of 63 murders per 100,000 residents.

If nothing changes, 80 more human beings will die a violent death on the streets of New Orleans this year. And most of those who die will be African-American men, often young, and almost always they will be shot.

The Times-Picayune has a blog with a map of all the murders and information about all 111 deaths, including victim names and details about the status of the murder investigations. This is the way it should be done.

Along with citizencrimewatch.org, we are well served on the mapping front.

St. Anna's Episcopal Church is recording the murders of 2007 on a board outside of the church. From the T-P article:

The Rev. Bill Terry, the pony-tailed pastor at St. Anna's Episcopal Church, updates The List each Monday afternoon with a black permanent marker: date, name, age, gender, manner of death (shot/beaten/stabbed).

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He and Elaine Clemments, a deacon in training, sought to both funnel their outrage and honor victims. When a victim becomes a statistic, people have a tendency to look at the victim and make a value judgment: He's a criminal, he probably deserved it. To Terry, it makes no difference.

"It's a human being someone loved," he said, sitting in the rectory hall, clutching a cup of coffee.

Human beings someone loved.

January – 17 human beings someone loved murdered

February – 13 human beings someone loved murdered

March – 18 human beings someone loved murdered

April – 14 human beings someone loved murdered

May – 15 human beings someone loved murdered

June – 19 human beings someone loved murdered

July – 14 human beings someone loved murdered

07/01/07 – 2 murders

98) A 26-year-old man was gunned down in the 1500 block of North Johnson Street early Sunday and a man was arrested in connection with the slaying later that same morning.

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According to investigators, First District Officers responding to a call found the victim lying in the driver's seat of a vehicle, suffering from an apparent gunshot wound to head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

99) The most recent crime related death took place just around 9 p.m. in Orleans Parish in the 1800 block of St. Roch.
Police said they found the body of a 65-year-old man in the side alley of an abandoned warehouse. He had a gunshot wound to the head.

07/05/07 – 1 murder

100) An autopsy determined Jerome Banks, 27, of New Orleans was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest, said chief cororner's investigator John Gagliano, who released his identity.
About 6:55 a.m., police responded to a call found Banks lying in high grass in the driveway of a vacant house in the 6000 block of Beechcraft Street, said Garry Flot, a public information officer for the New Orleans police.
He said police found evidence that Banks was shot nearby in the 4500 block of Skyview.

07/13/07 – 1 murder

101) One man was killed and two others wounded, but a baby narrowly escaped injury Friday evening, when gunshots from a passing vehicle were fired at a parked van in Central City, New Orleans police said.
None of the victims was identified by police. One died at a local hospital, where he was taken shortly after the shooting. He had been with at least three other people in a parked van, the apparent target of a drive-by shooting at about 8:35 p.m., police said.

07/14/07 – 1 murder

102) An 18-year-old man who was shot and killed in Central City on Saturday has been identified as Keith Paige of New Orleans, the Orleans Parish coroner's office said.
Paige was shot Saturday about 5 p.m. at Freret and Third streets, New Orleans police said. He died the same day at 7:55 p.m. at University Hospital.
An autopsy showed he died of multiple gunshot wounds…

07/18/07 – 2 murders

103) A 33-year-old man was shot in Eastern New Orleans at about 12:30 a.m. on Michoud Boulevard near Adventure Avenue, New Orleans police said.
The name of the victim is being withheld pending notification of family members.
According to investigators, Seventh District officers responded to a call of a "male shot" and, upon their arrival, found the victim lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds to his body next to a vehicle. Emergency medical technicians were summoned to the scene, where he was pronounced dead.

104) Paul Burks, 24, of New Orleans was shot about 10:30 p.m. in the 2100 block of Annunciation Street, between Jackson Avenue and Josephine Street. A private citizen drove Burks to Touro Infirmary, where he died Thursday at 1:24 a.m.
An autopsy showed Burks suffered one gunshot wound to the back, said chief coroner's investigator John Gagliano.

07/21/07 – 1 murder

105) The New Orleans Police Department is investigating the shooting death around 9:30 a.m., Saturday, of a 54-year-old man near the corner of Jackson Avenue and Baronne Street in Central City.
Police did not immediately have any motive or suspects in the shooting at a car wash at 2139 Baronne St., police spokeswoman Sabrina Richardson said. The coroner's office did not immediately identify the victim.
Richardson said officers responded around 9:30 a.m. to a report of shots fired. They found the victim dead at the scene of a gun shot to the head.

07/22/07 – 2 murders

106) A 26-year-old man was shot and killed about 1:30 a.m. Sunday at the intersection of Eagle and Spruce streets, the New Orleans Police Department said.
Dallas Jerome suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and a fatal shot to the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene, said chief coroner's investigator John Gagliano.

107) A New Orleans teenager was found shot to death and another one wounded in an Algiers neighborhood Sunday night.
New Orleans police continued the search for a motive and suspects Monday after James Johnson, 19, was found dead and an 18-year-old wounded.
New Orleans police officers responded to a call Sunday shortly after 8:30 p.m. reporting a man lying near the street at 3537 Timber Wolf Lane. They and found the older victim with a gunshot wounds, including one to the head, officer Sabrina Richardson said. He was taken to University Hospital, where he died, said John Gagliano, spokesman for the New Orleans coroner's office.

07/26/07 – 1 murder

108) New Orleans police are looking for the gunman in an early-morning carjacking that left one man dead Thursday.
A friend said he'd rented his Panola Street pool house to 49-year-old Anthony White, who became the 108th homicide victim in New Orleans this year.
White was a contractor for Jacobs Engineering out of Baton Rouge, Brad Robinson said. He was shot and killed at about 3 a.m.
"It was a carjacking, and it could've happened to you -- it could've happened to anybody watching this broadcast. The guy was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Robinson said.
White's blue 2002 Jeep Liberty was taken.

07/28/07 – 1 murder

109) A man was fatally shot Saturday night in the Zion City neighborhood, New Orleans police said.
The unidentified man was found dead in the Palmetto Canal along the 4100 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard shortly before 9 p.m.
The man died on the paved area inside the canal, not in the water. He appeared to have multiple gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Joe Narcisse, a police public information officer.

07/30/07 – 1 murder

110) Police received a report of gunshots around 7 a.m. in the 1400 block of Bienville Street, according to New Orleans Police Department officer Garry Flot. When police arrived, they found a man lying face down on the ground. He had been shot several times, Flot said.
The victim was identified by the Orleans Parish coroner's office as 24-year-old John W. Barrow III. Barrow was living in Baton Rouge, but had recently returned to New Orleans, said John Gagliano, chief investigator for the office.
Barrow was gunned down in a patch of well-grown grass, under the shade of a tree that reached to the top of the development's three-story buildings.

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07/31/07 – 1 murder

111) One man is dead and another is hospitalized in stable condition after an early morning shooting Tuesday in the 9th Ward.
Shortly before 1 a.m., 5th District police responded to a call of "male down" near the corner of Marais and Pauline streets near the Industrial Canal, officer Sabrina Richardson said.
Officers found one man with a gunshot wound in his chest and another with a gunshot wound in his buttocks, according to police.
John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish coroner's office, identified the man with the chest wound as Kevin Underwood, 22. Underwood died at University Hospital, Gagliano said.