NEW ORLEANS — At least 16 people were injured, 10 of them hospitalized, after a shootout Sunday night in a park here where hundreds of people had gathered for the filming of a music video, the New Orleans Police Department said.
In addition to the 10 people who were taken to hospitals by ambulances, officials said that others were showing up with injuries they said were related to the shooting.
The police said 16 people were injured, and they issued an urgent appeal for information.
"This is a classic case where we need citizens' help," Superintendent Michael S. Harrison of the police told reporters at a briefing. "What we need more than anything else is for witnesses to come forward and tell us what they saw."
Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who joined Harrison at the briefing, called the violence "infuriating," adding, "It's just insane to put the lives of this many innocent people at risk."
A police spokesman, Tyler Gamble, said that a little after 6 p.m. Sunday, officers learned that a large crowd was forming at Bunny Friend Park in the Upper Ninth Ward, where a music video was apparently being filmed. As the officers approached the park, he said, gunshots rang out.
Most of the responding officers had been detailed to a nearby parade that ended shortly before the outbreak of violence in the park.
Local news reports said that as many as 500 people were in the park at the time the shooting started.
The authorities could not provide much information Sunday night on who was recording the video, but Gamble said it was being made without a permit to use the park.
The police learned from witnesses that "there were two groups that were firing shots back and forth at each other, and then ran off after each other on foot," Gamble said.
Casings were found around the park. Detectives at the hospital Sunday night were trying to learn more about the victims and the extent of their injuries.