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Officials say at least 200 people are in "imminent danger" as a levee breached around Lafitte and Jean Lafitte in Jefferson Parish. video report at link

Several armed bystanders successfully stopped a shooting spree that left three dead, including the suspect, in a New Orleans suburb. The shooting happened at the Jefferson Gun Outlet in the suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, around 2:50 p.m., according to a release from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Joseph Lopinto told reporters that a person went into the gun store and shooting range and fatally shot two people on Saturday. Several individuals engaged with the shooter inside the gun shop and in a parking lot outside.

A mother had three children in her vehicle while she fled from authorities Thursday morning (March 8), according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Deputies were trying to stop her SUV after her husband reported she was missing and said he thought she was having a "psychotic breakdown." Jefferson Parish Interim Sheriff Joseph Lopinto, at a press conference broadcast by WVUE Fox 8, said the children -- 4, 6 and 13 -- were all safe and uninjured after the series of pursuits ended around 6 a.m. He said Harahan police officers and JPSO deputies both stopped chasing her once they...

Jefferson Parish authorities are booking two teen gunmen in connection with a double shooting Tuesday night in Harvey that left a 15-year-old girl dead and one of the suspects wounded. After three days of sifting through evidence and conflicting accounts of the event that claimed Shamairie Joseph's life as she watched television with a toddler on her lap, Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office investigators said Thursday (Dec. 24) they understood what transpired. The girl was slain by a stray bullet, they said, unleashed when the two armed teens tried settling a dispute by squeezing triggers.-snip-Fortunato said investigators recovered 19 shell casings...

A 15-year-old girl is dead and a 16-year-old boy is in guarded condition after a shooting shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening (Dec. 22) in Harvey. The victim who died was identified as Shamairie Joseph of Harvey, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office news release. Responding officers found Joseph suffering a gunshot wound to the chest in the 1600 block of Apache Drive, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. The boy was found suffering a gunshot wound to the abdomen about a block away, in the 1000 block of Inca Drive. Preliminary indications are that "both victims...

Next year's St. Patrick's and Irish-Italian parades in Metairie could bring a reduced risk of being smacked in the head with a cabbage. The edibles could still be airborne, but float riders would be required to soften their touch in throwing them. A proposal coming before the Jefferson Parish Council on Wednesday (Nov. 3) would require that all "fruit, vegetables, soap and other non-perishable food items" be tossed underhand at the parades. The reason: Too many people were getting hurt by flying food, said Sean Burke, the administration's director of citizen affairs. He recalled two incidents that led to a...

Ford was 76 years old, had been ill for quite some timeFrankie Ford, a rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues singer whose 1959 hit “Sea Cruise” brought him international fame when he was 19, is dead at the age of 76. Ford died Monday of natural causes, according to the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, coroner’s office. “He was a great guy. He had the best voice in rock and roll,” said Mike Shepherd, a friend of Ford’s and head of the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, which inducted Ford in 2010.

A man was killed in a Christmas Eve shooting inside the crowded Oakwood Center mall, and a suspect has been arrested, the Jefferson Parish sheriff said. Sheriff Newell Normand said the shooting occurred about 4:20 p.m. Wednesday (Dec. 24) at the Footlocker shoe store. The victim, identified by authorities as 24-year-old Harvey resident James Vaughn, had just made a purchase when a gunman walked up and opened fire from about three feet away, Normand said. At least three shots were fired, he said. The gunman ran, but a suspect was taken into custody several blocks away from the mall after...

The 18-year-old suspect shot during the botched robbery of a Marrero sandwich shop was a former employee, according to a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrest report. Robert McClure, of Marrero, was still in critical condition Monday after he was shot multiple times while allegedly trying to hold up Chateau Orleans Po Boy Shop at 2324 Barataria Blvd. on Saturday night. An unidentified 38-year-old employee was also wounded by gunfire during the robbery. He was shot in the arms and expected to recover.Sheriff's Office investigators said McClure donned a mask and dark-colored clothing, armed himself with a 20-gauge shotgun and entered...

A Jefferson Parish school psychologist criticized for posting hostile remarks about African-Americans online has left his job. Mark Traina, who worked in the Jefferson public school system, came under scrutiny when a civil rights organization complained about his inflammatory rhetoric.His resignation was effective Tuesday, said school system spokeswoman Beth Branley, who declined further comment. News of Traina's bellicose commentary on issues involving the black community initially spread on Monday.Traina, who described himself on Twitter as white, married, age 55, a Slidell resident and interested in "politics, the economy, reading and expressing my opinion," issued tweets saying "young black thugs" who...

A federal grand jury today indicted former Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard on charges of manipulating the parish payroll to boost his ex-wife's salary. Also charged were Karen Parker, who divorced Broussard in October 2009, and former Parish Attorney Tom Wilkinson as part of a sweeping, two-year investigation of the parish government under Broussard's watch. The indictments come nine months after the trio received letters from prosecutors suggesting they could be charged with crimes. Broussard had resigned in January 2010, Parker was fired a month later and Wilkinson quit a month after that. The charges are wire fraud and conspiracy...

NEW ORLEANS - Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard is telling council members and staffers that he will step down this afternoon because he doesn’t want to be a distraction to the parish, according to council member Cynthia Lee-Sheng. Lee-Sheng said she talked to Broussard after hearing reports about a possible resignation on TV. “He told me he hasn’t even had a chance to finish his protocol and call his council members before it got out in the press,” she said. “He sounded well. He said he didn’t want this to be a distraction any more for the parish. He said...

Two suspects have been arrested in the death of Paige DeJean, the 7-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet that ripped through the wall of her River Ridge apartment, authorities said today. Andre Preston, 21, 428 Webster St., Kenner, and Roger Chairs, 21, 728 Filmore St., River Ridge, were booked overnight with first-degree murder, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said. Chairs was arrested at home, Preston at a Kenner motel.They were identified as suspects from neighborhood tips and investigation by Sheriff's Office detectives. "The death of Paige created pause in the community," Normand said. "I'm glad the community stepped up...

Seven-year-old Paige DeJean called her daddy every Sunday to keep him updated about school, her friends and just how much she has missed him since he deployed to the Middle East in June with his Louisiana Army National Guard unit.But on Sunday, instead of a bubbly conversation with his little girl, Staff Sgt. Henry DeJean received a call from her mother with the devastating news that Paige had been killed, shot by a stray bullet as she slept in her River Ridge apartment. "He was thinking it was his daughter calling him. He had no idea somebody was calling him...

One of four men killed during a shootout at a Marrero bar last month was hit by a bullet fired by the bar owner as he exchanged gunfire with robbers, according to testimony Tuesday during a court hearing for two of the five suspects. Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Detective Keith Locascio testified that one victim was killed by a .38-caliber bullet and, separately, that bar owner Wallace Gomez was the only person armed with a .38-caliber pistol when gunmen robbed Gomez's bar Oct. 30. Gomez, 78, of Marrero; his brother, Beuford Gomez, 75, of Marrero; Jeffrey Carmardelle, 71, of Marrero;...

Merely 18 days from the November 4 election and one group that is designed to get inner city and lower income people registered to vote is now being charged with voter registration fraud in 12 states. ACORN International's headquarters is right on Canal Street in New Orleans, and although this chapter hasn't been charged, the Secretary of State is investigating the group along with several others. At the Registrar of Voters Office in Jefferson Parish, they have had to make boxes to store thousands of faulty new voter registration cards. Rejected applications were thrown out because they were from felons,...

<p>A graffiti artist who was struck and killed by a police vehicle on Kenner's West Return Canal levee has been identified as a 16-year-old boy who was visiting his father on the West Bank.</p> <p>Victor Montano from Houston had been in the New Orleans area for about two weeks, Kenner Police Chief Steve Caraway said Friday.</p>

A minister's 16-year-old son, an A student with no criminal record, said Wednesday that Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies beat him while he was handcuffed during a traffic stop in Elmwood. So sharp was one blow that it broke the hand of a deputy who struck the teen in the face. Sheriff Harry Lee said the deputy reported that the youth, Troy Lawrence Jr., had attacked him. Lee said he will reserve judgment on the case until his office investigates. "He's saying one thing, and the deputy is saying another thing," Lee said. "I don't know who's telling the truth." The...

Next step will be citing owners of Jefferson lots Tacos, burritos, quesadillas and other Latin American fare remained for sale at mobile kitchens in Jefferson Parish on Monday even as inspectors set in motion a crackdown on the rolling restaurants. Parish officials said five food stands were violating a new law that effectively bans vending trucks. Their next move will be citing the owners of lots where the trucks are parked. The food vendors, meanwhile, said they will try to hang on as long as they can before their landlords, facing possible fines, make them leave. The showdown follows a...

It was 20 years ago that Sheriff Harry Lee said black people in white neighborhoods were probably up to no good and threatened to pull them over if they were driving there. Now, with a murder rate in Jefferson Parish that is almost double what it was last year, Lee said deputies will soon begin stopping black people in violent neighborhoods and searching them. Deputies have said it has become like a war zone on the Westbank of Jefferson Parish. Violence has spread to neighborhoods that had very little pre-Katrina crime and has exploded in others. They blame it on...