A suspect has been arrested in connection with the April 28 shooting outside a New Orleans restaurant that killed a waiter and injured a visitor from Chicago who was attending a birthday party for WXRT radio host Terri Hemmert, the New Orleans Police Department announced Monday.
U.S. marshals with the help of the police department took Kyron Keith Fazande, 22, into custody without incident at a residence in Houston Monday morning, according to New Orleans police. Fazande will be moved back to New Orleans and faces charges of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and aggravated battery.
The shooting took place outside Mandina’s Restaurant during the first weekend of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Thousands were in town for the event.
A waiter, identified as 23-year-old Hibert Walker III, was killed.
A 54-year-old woman from Chicago was visiting for the festival and celebrating Hemmert’s birthday inside the restaurant when she was shot, interim New Orleans police Superintendent Michelle Woodfork said.
Hemmert recounted the celebration being “interrupted by a hail of bullets” in a Facebook post. Hemmert wrote that her friend, who has not been identified, was shot in the back.
In the post, Hemmert reflected on the pervasiveness of gun violence. She wrote that people who are tired of hearing about shootings should “think again.”
“It’s no longer a figure of speech when you say you dodged a bullet. And if someone says ‘this is not America’ or ‘this is not us,’ they had better duck,” Hemmert wrote.
The Associated Press contributed.
