NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – The NOPD is backing a musician`s claim that he shot a man outside a Marigny nightclub in self-defense.
However, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office will determine upon closer review if charges will be filed.
Some think the confrontation escalated due to what locals are calling the growing epidemic of gutterpunks.
Doorman Walt at BMC says his musician friend and war veteran Billy Gregory was finishing a gig at Vasso when gutter punks began harassing him outside Check Point Charlie’s, “I couldn’t figure out why it was one shot fired, and they all weren’t dead.”
“Billy’s a vet. He plays around on Frenchmen Street, Willie Lockett & The Blues Krewe,” says Claudia Boyle who runs Checkpoint Charlie’s. “He usually stops in to have a drink after his gig and says hi. Nice, man.”
The police report says that 23-year-old Nicholas Temper threatened to commit bodily harm on the 64-year-old musician and take his guitar.
According to the man, an unknown woman approached him and complimented his clothes which in turn enraged her boyfriend, later identified as Temper.
“He said something and the kid got jealous. Got mouthy with Billy,” says Walt.
Fearing for his safety, police say the musician took out a pistol and shot Temper once in the chest.
“There was a big scene,” recalls Boyle who watched as the wounded gutterpunk managed to walk inside to the back Checkpoint’s. “I just saw some gutterpunk kid came in shot. They screamed for me to call 911. I called 911. He collapsed on the floor. A whole bunch of cops came. Closed off the bar.”
“All I know is that my friend is in the hospital right now,” says an unidentified gutterpunk sitting on the neutral ground between Check Point’s and BMC. “He got shot in the $!#&ing chest. That’s nuts! Some dude slapped him and then he went to go fight him and the dude just pulled a $!#&ing gun out. He’s in the hospital right now, but he’s alive.”
Witnesses say other gutterpunks followed Gregory and beat him up.
Floyd Winters, 28, was booked on charges of simple battery.
One more suspect wanted for assaulting Gregory remains at large.
Gregory was interviewed and released.
The District Attorney’s Office will examine the case more closely to determine if the shooting of Temper indeed was justified.
“It’s very random. It’s very rare,” says Bolye. “People should just be nicer to each other.”
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