New Orleans police arrested a man after video of him firing shots outside an apartment complex.
The incident unfolded Tuesday in Treme, a historically Black community in New Orleans, just after 6:30 a.m., WDSU News 6 reported. Police responded to reports of a shooting at the Bell Artspace apartments and arrived to find the suspect, Michael Foster, standing near an empty parked car with several bullet holes in it.
Witnesses who filmed the shooting said Foster just walked into the courtyard and started firing the gun.
“It was shocking. I could’ve been picked off like a deer or something,” said one neighbor who asked to remain anonymous. “He could’ve saw me and like reacted and I could have been a victim for nothing.”
Jazz Johnson, another resident of the complex, recalled the gunman, dressed in khaki military-style clothing, approach the entryway and point the gun as if he were aiming for someone. She and her husband, Ludovico Zucconi were one of the first people to dial 911.
“He’s pointing a pistol,” Johnson is heard saying on footage of the incident. “It’s a little handgun. This is crazy.”
“He’s shooting. He’s a white man,” she tells the 911 operator as shots ring out. “Beard. He has a backpack.”
It isn’t long before officers respond, closing in on Foster as the gunman surrenders with his hand in the air, according to Johnson’s video. He was arrested without incident. However, some residents suspect the situation would’ve ended much differently had the suspect not been white.
“If it would have been a person with Black skin, it would have been a different kind of processing,” Zucconi told WWL-TV.
Police charged Foster, 35, with criminal damage to property, illegal use of a weapon and illegal carrying of a weapon, arrest documents show. His bond was set at $15,000.
No one was injured in the shooting.
Watch more in the video below.
https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/crime/video-captures-man-opening-fire-at-treme-apartment-complex/289-591259087
https://www.wdsu.com/article/man-arrested-for-shooting-outside-treme-apartment-complex/22999227
