Server fatally shot outside New Orleans restaurant; patron wounded

NEW ORLEANS — A server at a popular New Orleans restaurant was shot and killed outside the business and a patron inside was wounded on Friday, authorities said.

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Hilbert Walker III, 23, was fatally wounded in what police are calling a targeted attack, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported. Walker was a server at Mandina’s Restaurant, according to the newspaper.

The injured patron was a 54-year-old woman from Chicago who was visiting for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, WWL-TV reported. She was celebrating a friend’s birthday inside the restaurant and was injured when a bullet penetrated the building and struck her, police said.

According to witnesses, two people arrived at the restaurant in a vehicle and shot Walker outside at about 8:20 p.m. CDT, the Times-Picayune reported.

New Orleans Interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork said that Mandina’s had a hired private security guard that returned fire with the suspects, according to WDSU-TV. The guard was not injured.

“We want to offer our condolences to the victims of this heinous incident,” Woodfork said during a news conference on Saturday. “We are doing everything in our power to make sure incidents like these don’t happen again.”

In a statement, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said that “a celebratory day was later marred by another senseless act of violence.”

No arrest warrants have been issued, WVUE-TV reported.

Friday was the first night of the Jazz Festival, and the restaurant is located about 2 miles from the venue at the Fair Grounds. Woodfork told reporters that the New Orleans Police Department has 150 to 180 officers working at or near the Fair Grounds during festival hours.

“Over 90 years of service on Canal Street, we’re never had such a sad, senseless event take place,” owner Cindy Mandina said, according to the Times-Picayune.

The restaurant, which has been open for 92 years and serves Creole-Italian food, is normally open on weekends but was closed after the shooting, according to the newspaper. It is expected to reopen on Monday.