TAYSOM HILL FEELS HEALTHY, ON VERGE OF RETURN FOR SAINTS 1C
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9 homicides in 7 days rattle N.O. Crime spikes as city awaits National Guard deployment
BY MISSY WILKINSON and JOHN SIMERMAN Staff writer
Nine people were killed in New Orleans last week, marking the city’s deadliest seven-day stretch since the New Year’s morning terrorist attack on Bourbon Street.
Over a week ending Friday morning, the bloodshed spread across the Crescent City. Homicides were reported in nine neighborhoods: Desire, Broadmoor, Little Woods, Mid-City, Bayou St. John, the Central Business District, French Quarter, 7th Ward and Leonidas.
attacks have some locals recalling 2022, when New Orleans led the nation in murder rate at the peak The victims included a Chicago of a three-year surge in deadly viotourist shot during her birthday lence. For the past two years, the celebration in the Quarter, a Bayou city has enjoyed steep declines in St. John artist gunned down after crime, with the tally of murders answering his door, and a Bren- sliding back to a near half-century nan’s Restaurant chef killed in a low reached in 2019. “As a resident, trying to navicarjacking as he waited to pick up his son from day care. gate this city that I love, it’s very The pace and randomness of the traumatizing,” said Rhonda Find-
ley, a community activist and French Quarter business owner. “We should not be where we are. I should not be living in fear.” NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick on Wednesday acknowledged September had been “quite a challenge,” closing the month with 14 homicides. Metropolitan Crime Commission
ä See HOMICIDES, page 5A
QUARTER QUAGMIRE Roadwork raises concerns, causes problems for businesses
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Secretary of State Nancy Landry, left, and Attorney General Liz Murrill are embroiled in a high-stakes legal battle.
AG Murrill fires lawyers for secretary of state STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER
Pedestrians walk Friday along the 1100 block of Decatur Street, which is closed for major road reconstruction. BY SOPHIE KASAKOVE Staff writer
A major roadwork project has taken over another block of the historic French Quarter, slowing business and snarling traffic just as one of New Orleans’ busiest seasons for tourists kicks off. The Sewerage & Water Board’s more than $9 million project to replace 115-year-old water mains near Jackson Square began in August, shutting down one of the famed neighborhood’s most iconic blocks on St. Peter Street between Chartres and Royal streets. Then, on Sept. 22, the same towering fencing that typically encloses the agency’s work appeared on the normally busy strip of Decatur Street between Gov. Nicholls Street and Ursulines Avenue. The massive project, which has left streets and intersections impassable to cars, is expected to take a year to complete, said Ceara Labat,
Officials at odds over canceling of legal contracts as redistricting case looms
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
tering businesses looking to recover from the typically slow summer season, and has raised concerns among business owners and neighborhood
Attorney General Liz Murrill has fired all of the outside lawyers working for Secretary of State Nancy Landry in an extraordinary high-stakes legal battle between two of Louisiana’s six statewide elected officers. Murrill said she acted to protect her primacy as Louisiana’s chief legal officer after Landry, in her view, challenged that authority in advance of an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court hearing on whether Louisiana will have to redraw its congressional voting maps. Landry believes Murrill has overreacted and questions whether the attorney general has the right to end her outside legal contracts. She declined to answer when asked whether she might go to court to block Murrill. Adding to the legal and political drama, Murrill and Landry, while not close friends, grew up a block from each other in the Greenbriar neighborhood of Lafayette and went to Lafayette High
ä See DECATUR, page 4A
ä See LAWYERS, page 5A
A road closed sign at the corner of Ursulines Avenue and Decatur Street has a hole in it. a spokesperson for the S&WB. Decatur between Gov. Nicholls and Ursulines will be closed “for a minimum of five months,” she said. All the digging, repairing and repaving has stopped tourists from en-
State intervenes on Belle Chasse Bridge Lawmakers continue call for investigation into toll fees
seeing the Belle Chasse Bridge to fix a slew of alleged violations, including exorbitant tolls and fees on drivers. Landry and the state Department of Transportation and Development on Thursday ordered BY LARA NICHOLSON Plenary Group to suspend all Staff writer tolls and fees for the Belle Chasse Just months into a 30-year state Bridge and provide the state with contract, Gov. Jeff Landry and a written plan and schedule for lawmakers are turning up the heat remedying the problems within 10 on a company tasked with over- business days, according to a let-
WEATHER HIGH 83 LOW 74 PAGE 6A
ter sent to the company. In the letter, Landry and the DOTD say that Plenary is violating its contract by failing to provide information regarding tolling and enforcement in a timely manner; placing nonrenewal flags on licenses without following proper procedures; disrupting utility services to surrounding properties for up to three years; and allowing
STAFF FILE PHOTO By DAVID GRUNFELD
ä See BRIDGE, page 4A The bridge over the Industrial Canal in Belle Chasse opened in March.
Business ......................5B Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Classified .....................5D Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C Comics-Puzzles .....1D-4D Nation-World................2A
13TH yEAR, NO. 53