2 killed, 2 injured in drive-by shooting near Mall of Louisiana, officials say
Bullet holes riddle the door and driver’s window of a car at the intersection of Picardy and Bluebonnet near an entrance to the Mall of Louisiana, as Baton Rouge Police Dept. officers and others work the scene of a drive-by shooting, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.
- STAFF PHOTO BY TRAVIS SPRADLING
Bullet holes riddle the door and driver’s window of a car at the intersection of Picardy and Bluebonnet near an entrance to the Mall of Louisiana, as Baton Rouge Police Dept. officers and others work the scene of a drive-by shooting, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.
- STAFF PHOTO BY TRAVIS SPRADLING
Bullet holes riddle the door and driver’s window of a car at the intersection of Picardy and Bluebonnet near an entrance to the Mall of Louisiana, as Baton Rouge Police Dept. officers and others work the scene of a drive-by shooting, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.
- STAFF PHOTO BY TRAVIS SPRADLING
Bullet holes riddle the door and driver’s window of a car at the intersection of Picardy and Bluebonnet near an entrance to the Mall of Louisiana, as Baton Rouge Police Dept. officers and others work the scene of a drive-by shooting, Friday, Feb. 25, 2022.
- STAFF PHOTO BY TRAVIS SPRADLING
Two people were killed and another two wounded in a drive-by shooting outside the Mall of Louisiana Friday, Feb. 25, 2022, Baton Rouge law enforcement officials said.
- Elyse Carmosino / The Advocate
Grainy cell phone footage shows a young man hanging outside the rear passenger door of a bullet-riddled tan Chevy Malibu, his head moving feebly as the scene around him descends into chaos.
Sobs and screams of “I need help” can be heard emanating from just beyond the camera’s line of sight as it pans to a woman crouched on the curb, gently stroking the face of another man as he lies in the grass, his eyes closed, hands loosely clutching his abdomen. Blood stains spatter the Bluebonnet Boulevard intersection – just feet from the entrance of a J. Alexander restaurant, where horrified lunch patrons watched it all unfold.
The drive-by shooting, which killed two people and injured two others near a strip of restaurants and businesses outside the Mall of Louisiana Friday afternoon, was the latest brazen instance of targeted violence to shake a region that has struggled to quell a steady rise in homicide rates.
BRPD spokesman Sgt. L’Jean McKneely said police, who responded to the scene shortly after 1:30 p.m., believe the victims and perpetrators were known to one another and part of what he described as “rival groups.”
He said investigators determined the shots had come from another vehicle that had been abandoned at the scene and that the shooters had fled in a third vehicle.
McKneely emphasized that the shooting was “an isolated incident.”
“The individuals inside of this car were targeted,” he said.
An hour after the cell phone footage was taken, the man outside the car still lay there, his body now partially covered by a blue tarp. Less than 10 yards away a second victim lay in the middle of the road. Crime scene tape surrounded both the intersection and restaurant as police redirected hundreds of cars around the scene.
