New Orleans CEO moving business over rampant crime: 'Time for me to protect my people'

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New Orleans business relocating over crime crisis

Harvey Gulf International Marine CEO Shane Guidry joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss why he decided to take drastic action to help protect his business against surging crime. 

A prominent New Orleans business has had enough and is relocating their downtown corporate office as rampant crime plagues the community.

Harvey Gulf International Marine CEO Shane Guidry joined "Fox & Friends First" to discuss his decision to leave after the attempted abduction of an employee and deadly shooting outside a popular restaurant.

"It's time to move," Guidry said Tuesday. "We had the Jazz Fest last week, we had patrons having dinner. The restaurant was shot up, innocent bystander having a nice, quiet dinner with her husband was shot. I mean, those types of things should not go on in America today. I just can't let my people be put in those positions."

NEW ORLEANS RESTAURANT SHOOTING KILLS WAITER, WOUNDS TOURIST DURING JAZZ FEST WEEKEND

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's second term was marked with challenging obstacles including Hurricane Ida, rising crime rates and deteriorating quality of life in the city.  (Peter Forest/Getty Images)

A suspect was arrested Monday in connection with a shooting outside Mandina's Restaurant on April 28, as thousands were in town for the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. A waiter, Hilbert Walker III, 23, was killed, and a Chicago woman sitting inside the restaurant was wounded.

Guidry said he considered moving the company 10 years ago when a federal judge granted court-supervised oversight of the city's police department under then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu, but ultimately decided to stick it out. 

Last year, an employee of Guidry's escaped an attempted abduction in broad daylight outside of the office and has since left the company out of fear, he told FOX 8. The business is now moving two miles away into Jefferson Parish, where Guidry once worked in the sheriff's office.

"The sheriff there is one who is committed to fighting crime. The DA is one committed to prosecuting people. And the judges impose big bans and harsh sentences," Guidry said.

"I know when my people move there they're going to be safe every day."

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Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s office said in a statement they were "disappointed" by the news and "keenly aware that public safety is a top concern for our stakeholders."

"As with all our businesses, our Office of Economic Development and Downtown Development District consistently and actively work with businesses to ensure the City of New Orleans remains a vibrant place to do business," the statement to FOX 8 read.

Guidry said he does not blame Cantrell for inheriting Landrieu's "horrible" federal consent decree overseeing the police.

"I spent time working at the attorney general's office with Attorney General Jeff Landry, I gained a lot of knowledge of what the consent decree did to the city of New Orleans, in terms of handcuffing the police department, handcuffing the officers from doing their jobs. So in all fairness to her, she inherited something that really needs to go away," he said.

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Guidry is hopeful that Landry, a Republican gubernatorial candidate recently endorsed by former President Trump, will get the city out from under the decree.

"We need to restore law and order. We need to, unfortunately, put bad people in jail. It's the only way to stop this crime wave that cities are seeing every single day."

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Guidry said he doesn't regret leaving a decade earlier because New Orleans is a great city filled with amazing people, but added it needs to be safer.

"It's time for me to protect my people if the mayor's office cannot figure out how to get out from under that federal consent decree and make major changes," he concluded.