NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Police shot and killed at least five people
Sunday after gunmen opened fire on a group of contractors traveling
across a bridge on their way to make repairs, authorities said.
Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said police shot at eight people
carrying guns, killing five or six.
Fourteen contractors were traveling across the Danziger Bridge under
police escort when they came under fire, said John Hall, a spokesman
for the Army Corps of Engineers.
They were on their way to launch barges into Lake Pontchartrain to
help plug the breech in the 17th Street Canal, Hall said.
None of the contractors was injured, Mike Rogers, a disaster relief
coordinator with the Army Corps of Engineers, told reporters in
Baton Rouge.
The bridge spans a canal connecting Lake Pontchartrain and the
Mississippi River.
Deputy Police Chief W.J. Riley said the shootings took place on the
Danziger Bridge, which connects Lake Pontchartrain and the
Mississippi River.