August 10, 2014: New Orleans police investigate a shooting in the city's Lower Ninth Ward that left two people dead and five others injured, including two young children. (Courtesy WVUE-TV)
New Orleans police said that three people were dead and six others wounded, including a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old, in two separate shootings Sunday.
Authorities said that two people were killed and five were wounded in a shooting in the Lower Ninth Ward, an area of the city that has been slow to recover since it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Police spokesman Frank Robertson said that the two children and one of the wounded victims were in critical condition, while the other two wounded victims were in stable condition.
WVUE-TV reported that witnesses told police that multiple people were seen fleeing the scene in a car. Robertson did not release any information about a possible motive.
In a separate, unrelated spate of violence, a 20-year-old man shot and wounded a friend Sunday morning inside a hotel room at the edge of the French Quarter, then killed himself after a three-hour standoff with police, authorities said.
Those shootings happened in a 17th-floor room at The Westin on Canal Street, where four friends from the Lafayette area were staying together for the weekend, Robertson said in a news release.
Three of them came in from partying in the Quarter, waking the fourth about 5 a.m., Robertson said.
He said the man returned to sleep only to be awakened by the plea, "Put the gun down." The 20-year-old, looking "dazed and confused under the influence of some unknown substance," was pointing a gun at their 24-year-old friend, he said.
The older man kept asking his friend to put the gun down, Robertson said, but about 6:30 a.m., the 20-year-old man shot him in the chest. The other two ran for help, hearing a second shot as they fled.
When hotel staff let police into the room, the 20-year-old pointed a gun at them, Robertson said.
The officers backed out and called a SWAT team.
After about three hours of negotiations, the 20-year-old man apparently shot himself and the SWAT team stormed in. He was pronounced dead about 9:55 a.m.
Rescue workers rushed the 24-year-old to a hospital where he was in stable condition Sunday evening.
Police have not identified the men. Lafayette is about 125 miles west of New Orleans.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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