NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A wellness check turned deadly after three bodies were found inside a New Orleans home on Tuesday (Jan. 3).
Shortly after 7 a.m., New Orleans Police Department Deputy Supt. Hans Ganthier says officers were called to a home in the 1700 block of Gentilly Boulevard for a wellness check. That’s where police found three people dead inside the location.
According to the NOPD, the three victims had been dead for several days and officers were not immediately able to determine specifics about the victims, including their age or gender.
Although it was unclear if the three people had been shot, we’re told that multiple bullets were found on the floor of the home. The case is being investigated as a triple homicide.
Several neighbors have identified the person who lives in the home as 50-year-old Alonzo Jackson, later confirmed by the Orleans Parish Coroner. His preliminary cause of death has been listed as a gunshot wound.
The identities of the other two people have not yet been released.
We’re told Jackson’s family has owned the house for several years and he was living in the home with his brother. One neighbor tells WGNO they called in for a wellness check after not hearing from Jackson for weeks.
According to multiple neighbors, the area is relatively quiet. However, President of the Fairgrounds Triangle Neighborhood Association Morgan Clevenger said it took years of hard work to get there.
“We went to every entity and said ‘help us please,'” Clevenger said. “Our park over there and the liquor store that used to be there next to it was a hot bed. It was an open air drug market, basically. There was shootings and gunfire every day and a lot of us have lived through that.”
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The NOPD stresses that the investigation is still in its early stages and is encouraging anyone with any details surrounding the incident to contact the following:
NOPD 1st District Office
(504) 658-6010
NOPD Homicide Section
(504) 658-5300
CrimeStoppers
Tips can be submitted anonymously to Crimestoppers of Greater New Orleans by calling (504) 821-1111 or toll-free at (877) 903-7867. To submit a tip online, click here. You could be eligible for a cash reward.
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