Hands up, don’t shoot.
Two women killed early Saturday in eastern New Orleans had been visiting relatives and friends when an angry man came looking for them shortly before midnight. What followed, witnesses recalled, was a short walk outside an apartment complex before five shots rang out.
Witnesses ran to the spot along a darkened Chef Menteur Highway, finding the two women wounded on the road: one laying on the westbound lane, the other partially collapsed under a parked vehicle. Both had been shot in the head, several witnesses said.
Emergency personnel pronounced the women dead at the scene, near the Chateau d’Orleans apartments at 14765 Chef Menteur Hwy. Authorities had not released the identities of the women, but a relative and witnesses identified one of them as Gerhonde Elphage, 25, a former resident of the complex.
Police responding to a 911 call at 12:05 a.m. found the women lying on the road with multiple gunshot wounds, according to NOPD spokesman Garry Flot. Police had not named any suspects or announced arrests as of Saturday afternoon.
Nikita Elphage, cousin of Gerhonde Elphage and a resident at the complex, said the two women had arrived around 11:30 p.m. Friday.
“They came to wish somebody happy birthday,” Nikita Elphage said. She said she didn’t recognize the other woman, and neither did other witnesses.
A few minutes later, a man appeared on the sidewalk inside the housing complex, inquiring about the women’s whereabouts.
A neighbor who lives in an apartment across the street described the man as skinny and dressed in a white shirt and blue shorts.