NEW ORLEANS — On Friday afternoon, the NOPD was called out in response to an allegedly armed subject holed up in a building in the 500 block of Tchoupitoulas Street.
After numerous attempts to communicate with the subject, the room was breached with a robot. The subject was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor suffering from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The subject was transported to a local hospital where he later expired.
“On behalf of NOPD, I want to extend my heartfelt condolences to the family of the victim in this incident,” said Superintendent Shaun Ferguson. “This is certainly not the outcome anyone wanted for this situation.”
The subject had barricaded himself inside the Old No. 77 Hotel located at 535 Tchoupitoulas Street at approximately 2:45 p.m.
WGNO’s Chris Welty, who had previously reported the deployment of a robot to end the near-eight hour standoff, said the subject was carted out on a stretcher and into an ambulance as tearful family members stood by.
Welty spoke with the man’s grandmother at approximately 7:30 p.m., and she told WGNO that her grandson was wanted on a warrant for a hit-and-run in Jefferson Parish.
The SWAT team was dispatched after the police received a hotline tip that the man was possibly involved in a hit-and-run, and was both armed and suicidal. When NOPD officers arrived, the subject barricaded himself in his fourth-floor room with a weapon.
A portion of the hotel had been evacuated despite police claiming the situation did not pose a threat to the public.
The NOPD submitted a list of road closures in the area, and had asked that residents living near the area remain inside of their homes while police activity was taking place.
Earlier in the day, the Regional Transit Authority had also tweeted a service alert due to police activity, and requested traffic to detour on Interstate 10 at Tchoupitoulas.