NEW ORLEANS — A man was found shot in the head and pronounced dead early Thursday morning, prompting the latest homicide investigation by the New Orleans Police Department this year.
According to police officials, the unnamed victim was found around 1 a.m. after officers were called to the 1400 block of Annette Street in the Seventh Ward for a medical emergency.
He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Initial police reports show the victim was 34 years old. Reportedly, an argument with an unknown suspect turned physical and the suspect pulled out a gun and shot the man.
NOPD officials said the killing was under investigation and no further information, including a potential suspect or motive for the murder, was immediately available.
The Orleans Parish Coroner will release the victim's identity after notifying his family and determining an official cause of death.
The 1400 block of Annette Street is a block away from a popular stretch of bars and businesses on St. Bernard Avenue between N.Claiborne and St. Claude avenues.
The early morning attack is the 28th homicide in New Orleans in 2020 and the first shooting on Annette Street reported by the NOPD since August of last year, when a man was shot in the leg and arm in the 1800 block.
February saw a decrease in the total number of people killed than January. Five fewer people died in the second month of the year, dropping the projected average for 2020.
If the current rate of killings continues through December, New Orleans would see about 162 murders in 2020, bucking the trend of lower murder rates released by the NOPD in the past few years.
Crime analyst Jeff Asher's records show 120 people were killed in 2019, according to The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate.
More Stories
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.
