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Your support makes all the difference.A Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans erupted into chaos on Fat Tuesday when a series of gunshots struck seven people, including a toddler.
The child was not seriously injured and two suspects were in custody, police said.
The shootings happened near the Garden District after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. A stream of truck floats that follow the parade were passing by when gunfire broke out.
"It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter," said Toni Labat, 29, a limousine company manager.
She was with her two children, a two-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.
"Everybody was petrified. They hit the ground, the floats stopped, everybody on the floats ducked," Ms Labat said.
Ms Labat said one man dragged himself on the ground screaming for help after being wounded and another man was gasping for air and bleeding from his mouth.
Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims - three men ages 50, 33 and 20, two young women ages 20 and 17 and a 15-year-old boy - were taken to area hospitals.
Mr Young said the 20-month-old baby was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt.
The two most seriously injured victims were shot in the stomach and underwent surgery, said Officer Janssen Valencia, though he didn't know the men's conditions.
The others were listed in stable condition with injuries not considered life-threatening.
Police believe the victims were bystanders hit at random, though a motive for the shooting hasn't been determined, Mr Valencia said. Their names weren't released.
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