Tagged: crime

An increase in home burglaries in St. Charles Parish has deputies making a simple warning to residents: Lock your doors.

WWL-TV reports that five burglaries have been reported in the parish in the last few days, most recently in St. Rose and Luling. The burglaries have usually happened in the middle of the day.

Residents of each home had left their back door unlocked.

El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world. But police say murders have been cut in half since March. That's when a former guerilla and a catholic bishop brokered a truce between two of the country's most violent gangs. Guest host Maria Hinojosa talks with Alex Sanchez, a former gang member, and director of the gang intervention group Homies Unidos. Hinojosa is also joined by Carlos Dada, editor of an online newspaper in El Salvador.

Officials say a grand jury next week will consider the case involving the man accused of kidnapping and murdering college student Mickey Shunick.

Lafayette Parish District Attorney Mike Harson told the Associated Press Tuesday that Brandon Scott Lavergne's case will be considered by a grand jury July 18.

Lavergne was arrested Thursday and is being held without bail at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.

New Orleans police have issued arrest warrants for two men suspected of stealing a bin of baby alligators from the Audubon Zoo gift shop.

Police say Audubon Security discovered the gift shop’s doors pried open, and a broken window near the shop’s bottom door latch, around 7:30 a.m. last Wednesday, just over three hours after receiving an alarm from the location. A check of the shop revealed 10 baby alligators missing from a tank within.

Police say two men were fatally shot as they sat in a sport-utility vehicle in New Orleans.

Officer Frank Robertson tells The Times-Picayune the shooting was reported about 9 a.m. Tuesday.

Robertson said the men, whose names and ages were not immediately available, were approached by someone who fired at them as they sat in the SUV. He said both men died at Interim LSU Public Hospital a short time after the shooting.

Police did not immediately have a motive for the shooting.