Abdul Aziz believes
he was standing right next to a shooter
Sunday when gunmen opened fire
at a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, injuring 19 people.
at a Mother's Day parade in New Orleans, injuring 19 people.
"Everyone around me,
except me,
was shot,"
he said. "I was pretty fortunate to get
away."
Aziz, 33,
photojournalist,
was at the second-line parade
when gunfire broke
out at the corner of Frenchman
Street and North Villere Street.
Second-line parades,
which involve dancing and brass
bands,
are a New Orleans tradition.
They happen most every Sunday,
except during the hottest months
in summer,
according to Aziz.
"We turned
off of a main thoroughfare to a
smaller residential street, and that's
when the shots rang out.
I was standing,
I believe,
right next to the shooter.
I saw muzzle flash
, but unfortunately I didn't get
a chance to see
who the shooter was," he
said.
People panicked and ran.
Aziz,
who has worked in the Middle
East,
started taking pictures.
He sent those images to CNN iReport.
"It's a little jarring
when you see these types of things
on the home front,"
he said."I'm sad.
I love this city.
We're plagued by crime,
and it's just not getting better
no matter what
we do."
According to police,
19 people were injured in the shooting,
including two children.
Ten men
and seven women were
among the victims.
The children suffered
graze wounds. Other injuries
ranged from minor
to severe.
Shots were fired from different
guns,
and officers saw three suspects
running from the scene, police
said.
One of the suspects was described
as an African-American male,
approximately 18 to 22 years old,
wearing a white T-shirt
wearing a white T-shirt
and blue jean shorts.
No one is in custody.
"This is an extremely
unusual occurrence,
and
we're confident that we will make swift
arrests," said Remi Braden, a police
spokeswoman.
Police Superintendent Ronal
Serpas told CNN affiliate WVUE
that it appears "two or
three people
just, for a reason unknown to us,
started shooting
at,
towards
, or in
the crowd."
He asked anyone with information
to call authorities.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu
echoed that request, challenging the community
to get involved.
"It's important for us, as I
have said, to change
the culture of death
on the streets of New Orleans
to a culture of life,
and it's going to take an
all-hands-on-deck approach,"
he said.
"These kinds of incidents
are
not going to go unanswered.
We're going to be very,
very aggressive.
There were hundreds of people
out there today, so somebody
knows who did
this."
