A subject entered an armory and firing range in a New Orleans suburb and shot two people to death Saturday, to which customers and employees responded by opening fire on the attacker, the police chief said. The man also died.
The shooting occurred at the Jefferson Gun Outlet store in the suburb of Metairie around 2:50 p.m., according to a statement from the Jefferson District Police Department.
Police Chief Joseph Lopinto indicated that the assailant first shot two people inside the armory, and then several more – both employees or customers of the store – opened fire on him inside and outside the building, he added. Later, a man outside the building shouted “where is my son?”
Guns and ammunition are sold at the front of the store, and the place overlooks a main avenue in the Jefferson district. Customers who want to frequent the firing range generally have to circle to the side entrance of the property. Personnel working at the site often carry weapons.
Lopinto said that two other people who were injured were hospitalized and were stable. He added that several people opened fire and investigators are trying to determine how the events happened.
“We are trying to put everything together, to reconstruct what happened,” said the police chief.
Neither the dead nor the wounded were identified at the moment and no details were elaborated. Lopinto said authorities were continuing to investigate to determine the exact details of what happened.
Plastic tape was installed around the establishment to prevent bystanders from approaching the scene, where ambulances and numerous police vehicles had arrived earlier.
Metairie is a suburb of New Orleans located about five miles (eight kilometers) west of the city’s iconic French District, in the neighboring Jefferson District jurisdiction.
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