(Pamela Cosel, Headline News) At a time when celebration should be the focus, bloodshed amidst gunfire took attention away as an elderly woman was killed Tuesday at a high school graduation in New Orleans. Two others were also injured, police said.
The incident comes just two weeks after four people were injured at a separate high school graduation in Hammond, Louisiana.
Tuesday’s shooting took place when an argument broke out between two females at the Morris Jeff Community School commencement on campus at Xavier University of Louisiana Convocation Center, reported ABC News.
Neither the name nor age of the woman killed in New Orleans has been released.
The first incident happened on May 20 at Southeastern Louisiana State University in Hammond as graduates and family members were leaving the campus, as reported by FOX News.
NOLA Deputy Superintendent Chris Goodly stated that “multiple subjects were detained” for questioning, but no arrests had been made as of 3 p.m., according to ABC News. They do not believe students were responsible for the shooting, and three people are being questioned.
“What should have been a celebration that highlights the hard-working students and their families regrettably transformed into another senseless act of gun violence,” NOLA Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a statement.
“Gun violence continues to plague our city, and we will remain laser-focused on leveraging local and federal partnerships to prioritize initiatives that address prevention strategies. However, we also understand that there is a higher degree of personal responsibility that needs to be present in order to de-escalate these situations.”
Both high school graduation shootings continue the horror that everyday citizens experienced this month, when counted with the mass shootings at Buffalo, New York, and in Uvalde, Texas, at Robb Elementary School, along with massacres in Chicago and Oklahoma.
Burials began Tuesday for some of the young Texas victims.
If the shooters in Louisiana were not students, what’s going on? Authorities should be demanding answers, instead of playing politics for partisan gain. As Mayor Cantrell stated, it’s about personal responsibility. And just who is responsible?
