News Service from House Harris

US: Seven wounded by gunfire on Mardi Gras parade route

NEW ORLEANS, Feb 25 AP - The shootings of seven people, including a toddler, marred Mardi Gras partying in New Orleans as gunfire sent revellers ducking for cover and brought the final stream of truck floats to a halt.

The 20-month-old child was only grazed by a bullet and wasn't seriously injured. Two suspects were in custody, police said.

Gunshots erupted near the Garden District about 1.40pm local time as a stream of truck floats passed by after the last major parade had ended. Thousands of people partied in the streets on the last day of Carnival before the violence broke out.

"It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter," said Toni Labat, 29, a limousine company manager. She was with her two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.

"Everybody was petrified. They hit the ground, the floats stopped, everybody on the floats ducked," Labat said.

Labat said one man dragged himself on the ground screaming for help after being wounded and another man was gasping for air and bleeding from his mouth.

Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims - three men ages 50, 33 and 20, two young women ages 20 and 17, and a 15-year-old boy - were taken to area hospitals. Young said the 20-month-old baby was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt.

The two most seriously injured victims underwent surgery for stomach wounds, said Officer Janssen Valencia, though he didn't know the men's conditions. The others were listed in stable condition on Tuesday night with injuries not considered life-threatening.

Police believe the victims were bystanders hit at random, though a motive for the shooting hasn't been determined, Valencia said. Their names weren't released.

Dr Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon at a gathering of doctors near the shooting site, ran over to tend to one man who he said had been shot in the abdomen. "He kept asking me, 'Was I shot? Was I shot?'."

Paramedics arrived and took over from the Air Force reservist.

"I'm off to Afghanistan this summer. Damn, this is more dangerous than Afghanistan," Parry said.

Two men, 19-year-old Mark Brooks and 18-year-old Louis Lazone, both of New Orleans, were each booked with seven counts of attempted first-degree murder. Brooks also faces a charge of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Young said. It was not immediately known if the men had lawyers.

Three weapons believed used in the shooting were recovered, Young said.

Two other shootings were reported in the midst of Mardi Gras celebrations. One happened on Friday night after an argument. And around 12.25am local time on Wednesday - just after Mardi Gras officially ends - a 21-year-old man was shot in the back in the middle of a Bourbon Street crowd, police said. His name was not released, but police spokesman Garry Flot said he was in stable condition.

Beau Beals, 45, said he was outside a house party on St Charles Avenue when the shooting erupted. He said he and other revellers tossed children over a metal fence to get them to safety, but others kept waiting for beads and trinkets being tossed from the floats as if nothing happened.

"They had an ambulance out here picking the guy up off the street and people didn't stop vying for throws," Beals said.