New Orleans police arrest man accused of killing paradegoers during multiple mass shootings

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans police arrested on Friday a man accused of killing two people during a large parade where two separate shootings within an hour left two dead and at least 10 wounded.

Curtis Gray, 19, faces two counts of second-degree murder tied to the Nov. 17 shootings along a crowded parade route, according to a news release from the New Orleans Police Department.

Gray allegedly fatally shot Rasean Carter, 21, and Malachi Jackson, 19, at the Almonaster Avenue Bridge, authorities say.

Carter, an aspiring photographer who lived in Marrero just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans, had planned to document the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club’s annual outing and was accompanied by Jackson, his friend and uncle, Nola.com reported. The parade was part of New Orleans’ long-running tradition of “second-lines” where revelers follow brass bands marching through the streets and has deep ties to the city’s Black culture.

The deaths of Carter and Jackson were among a series of recent lethal shootings in New Orleans. While most violence has been on the decline in the city since mid-2023, there were three people killed and eight wounded in six shootings over the past weekend according to Nola.com.

On Thursday, New Orleans police arrested two men, Darrell Fairley Jr., 18, and Cornelius G. Tillman, 19, in connection with a Nov. 30 double homicide in New Orleans East.