Two Loyola University students reported being robbed at gunpoint around 11:45 p.m. Friday near the intersection of Willow and Pine streets. The victims said the two suspects were two black men 15-17 years old dressed in black and blue hoodies. One of the suspects fired a shot but no one was harmed.

 

“As we were about three-fourths down the street in between Pine and Lowerline, they turned around and they both … had pistols,” one victim said. “One was seemingly fake and the other one clearly was not … I gave them $25 immediately.”

 

The other victim said he did not immediately realize what was happening. He offered his car keys to the suspects but they did not take them. The victims turned around to leave as the suspects told them to run.

 

One victim said he started yelling and banging on a passing car, which stopped. The other victim said he turned around just as the suspect fired a shot. New Orleans Police Department and Tulane University Police Department officers on the scene were not able to locate the casing.

 

Neighbors said they heard yelling and a gunshot and came outside. Neighbor James Plummer said that he saw the suspects leave in a dark-colored car parked near the corner of Willow and Lowerline streets.

 

Neighbor Livia Linden, a Tulane University junior, said that she first thought that the yelling was from drunken people in the street since it was a Friday night.

 

“I heard yelling first and I thought it was just someone being drunk because there’s always yelling on Friday and Saturday nights,” Linden said. “But I heard someone say help. It was too loud to be drunk yelling … and then I heard a pop and I knew it had to be a gunshot. And then I heard someone come out and say, ‘Are you ok?’”

 

Both Plummer and Linden said it took police 15-25 minutes to arrive on the scene. They said they were concerned about the long response time less than one day after another armed robbery occurred just a block away at 12:30 a.m. Friday at the corner of Jeannette and Pine streets.

 

The New Orleans Police Department had no information on this incident at this time.

 

More information to come.