US: One teenager, two children shot dead in New Orleans
12 Apr 2009 1:07 AM
WASHINGTON, April 11 AFP - A 19-year-old woman and two children, aged six years and 23 months, have been shot dead in their beds by two gunmen in a New Orleans suburb.
Police said a third child, aged 11, is in a critical condition in hospital with gunshot wounds.
Police said they have no motive in the triple murder early on Saturday in the suburb of Terrytown, Louisiana, but are looking for two armed men, both black and about 20 years old.
"The 19-year-old black female was shot in the back, the children were shot in the head, the 11-year-old girl was shot in the middle part of the body. In their bed," said Colonel John Fortunado, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff spokesman.
"We don't have no motive yet. Crack cocaine and marijuana were found in the apartment," he added.
The neighbourhood, according to the local Times Picayune newspaper, has seen an increase in armed robberies and homicides in recent years as narcotics use has risen in the area.
