Three Families Mourn Loved Ones' Deaths | News | New Orleans' CW38

Three Families Mourn Loved Ones' Deaths

Laila Morcos,

May 11, 2008

No Mother's Day celebration for three grieving families after the murders of their loved ones. We spoke with one devastated mom and a pastor... who hopes to help solve the violent crime problem.

New Orleans Police are investigating three separate murders, two overnight, and the murder of a 15 year old boy last night. The escalating violence in New Orleans is causing escalating frustration.

"Why'd they kill my son. He don't bother nobody." Eureka Mitchell was across the street from her home last night having fun. But all that ended around 9:30. She found her 15 year old son Arthur .. dead in the street. "On the ground look at it .. look at this." Now, a cross and blood mark the spot on South Robertson where Arthur was shot in the face. "Shocking. it's really tore me up inside. It's really tearing me up."

Two more murders happened overnight. NOPD found a man in the 33 hundred block of Garden Oaks Drive in Algiers and a 25 year old man in the 800 block of North Claiborne .. both shot and killed.

"Iit's unfortunate that we continue to experience violent crime in our cities and our neighborhoods. It's particularly painful on Mother's Day." Bethlehem Lutheran Church Pastor Patrick Keen is an activist and says nationwide, violent crime is a problem. He blames automatic weapons and handguns .. readily available to youth. "No one's saying that a rifle should be taken away .. but it's these automatic weapons that are on our streets that's even causing our police problems that we have to address."

He says to reduce crime .. the community needs needs to take responsibility too. "When they see folks walking around with pistols and guns to call police so police may intervene before violence erupts." He believes crime can be reduced 10 percent by the end of this year if people speak out and turn criminals into police. "Our young people need to know that the streets are no place for them," says Pastor Keen. and 15 year old Arthur Mitchell is an example of that ..

"He's my baby. That's the only boy I got. I got three girls," says Eureka, who joins an ever-growing list of mother's who've lost children to violence.

In an effort to turn violent crime around, Pastor Keen says Central City is going to get about two million dollars in funding for mentoring programs, job training, career counseling, life skills training .. a number of different crime prevention programs.