Seven hit by shots at Mardi Gras event

The last major parade of the day had passed through the Garden District in New Orleans when the gunshots rang out yesterday. Police did not know whether the shootings were random. (Rhonda Nabonne/The Times-Picayune via associated press)

NEW ORLEANS -A Mardi Gras parade erupted into chaos yesterday when a series of gunshots struck seven people, including a toddler. The child was not seriously injured and two suspects were in custody, police said.

The shootings happened near the Garden District about 1:40 p.m. after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. A stream of truck floats that follow the parade was passing by when gunfire broke out.

"It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter," said Toni Labat, 29, a limousine company manager. She was with her two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.

"Everybody was petrified. They hit the ground, the floats stopped, everybody on the floats ducked," Labat said.

Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims - three men ages 50, 33, and 20, two young women ages 20 and 17, and a 15-year-old boy - were taken to area hospitals. The conditions of all the victims were not immediately available, but Young said the 20-month-old baby was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt.

Dr. Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon who was near the shooting site, ran over to tend to one man who he said had been shot in the abdomen. "He kept asking me, 'Was I shot? Was I shot?' "

Paramedics arrived and took over for the Air Force reservist. "I'm off to Afghanistan this summer. This is more dangerous than Afghanistan," Parry said.

Two men, 19-year-old Mark Brooks and 18-year-old Louis Lazone, both of New Orleans, were each booked on seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Three weapons believed used in the shooting were recovered, Young said.

It was not clear whether the shooters were aiming for the victims or each other.

The violence along the oak-lined Uptown streetcar line marred what had been a generally peaceful day of revelry in which hundreds of thousands of people partied in the streets on the final day of Carnival.

Another shooting was reported on Friday night after an argument, but otherwise, the event was generally problem-free.

Beau Beals, 45, said he was outside a house party on St. Charles Avenue when the shooting erupted. He said he and other revelers tossed children over a metal fence to get them to safety, but others kept waiting for beads being tossed from the floats as if nothing had happened.

"They had an ambulance out here picking the guy up off the street and people didn't stop vying for throws," Beals said.