An 80-year-old woman was killed and two others were injured after gunfire broke out Tuesday following the Morris Jeff Community School graduation in Louisiana on the Xavier University campus, New Orleans police said.
The bloodshed comes just two weeks after four people were injured in an eerily similar shooting outside of the commencement ceremonies for Hammond High School. That graduation was also held at a college campus: Southeastern Louisiana University.
At a news conference, NOPD Deputy Superintendent Christopher Goodly said two women began fighting in the parking lot of Xavier’s convocation center after elated graduates and their loved ones spilled out of the 10 a.m. ceremony. The fight escalated, and at least one person pulled out a weapon and began firing.
At least three subjects were detained at the scene, police said, though it’s not clear what their involvement may have been.
The woman who was shot and killed was 80-year-old Augustine Greenwood, a mother of six and grandmother of 15. Her youngest grandchild had just received his diploma minutes earlier, relatives said.
Greenwood’s son-in-law, Corey Lashley Sr., said his son graduated from Morris Jeff High School, and that the family was walking from Xavier’s Convocation Center to their car to head for a meal together when he heard gunshots and noticed his mother-in-law was wounded.
“Instead of celebrating, we wound up sad, crying,” he said.
The two other victims, both males, had nonlife-threatening injuries, Goodly said. One was shot in the shoulder and the other in the leg.
At the scene, a handgun could be seen lying in a parking lot and an SUV’s window was broken into pieces as police investigated.
A man who was there to watch his niece graduate said he heard multiple gunshots about 10 minutes after the ceremony. He saw people running and ducked for cover. The man, who asked to remain unnamed due to fear of retaliation, said he was furious that a day that was supposed to be so full of promise was scarred by violence.
Patricia Perkins, the head of school at Morris Jeff, called the shooting a “horrific tragedy.”
“Every day, we teach our children to solve their differences with their words and to be compassionate toward each other,” Perkins wrote in a statement. “Our graduates will make a difference in this world because they learn to see each other as equal human beings. This resolve is only stronger after today’s violence.”
Dr. Henderson Lewis Jr., NOLA Public Schools superintendent, said all young people have a right to be safe, and it’s the community’s job to protect that right.
“I am outraged and saddened by the callousness shown today outside Xavier University,” Lewis said. “The graduating seniors of Morris Jeff were there to share in their collective achievements and bask in the brightness of their futures — only to have their optimism ripped apart by gun violence. This has got to stop. We must come together as a community, as a country, and address the damage caused by access to guns and to get to the root of the anger and despair that compels individuals to even think of harming others.”
In the Hammond High graduation shooting, authorities said 20-year-old Trent Thomas was fighting with a group of people on Southeastern’s campus shortly after the ceremony ended when he pulled out a gun and fired what law enforcement officials believe were “at least” 10 shots.
Three people were struck by bullets and rushed to a hospital, and a fourth person was hospitalized after they were injured trying to escape, Hammond Police Chief Edwin Bergeron has said.
Minutes after the shooting began, Thomas was taken into custody. He faces three counts of attempted second-degree murder, one count of possession of a weapon in a gun-free zone and one count of obstruction of justice.
Police are looking into the incident as possibly “gang-related,” Bergeron said, adding that authorities think at least one other shooter was involved. He said more arrests are expected in the case and that another person, a juvenile, is currently being looked at as a “person of interest.”
He added that investigators believe Thomas and the juvenile, who is believed to be a former Hammond High School student, were at the ceremony to watch a friend graduate when they came across the opposing group.
Anyone with information regarding the crimes is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.
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