6PM UPDATE: Crimestoppers has announced that the reward offered to find the person responsible for the death of Harry Ainsworth has been increased to $5,000. Anyone with information on this case is urged to call (504) 822-1111. Remember: you do not have to give your name.
It’s everyone’s nightmare crime scenario: a woman on her way to work attacked by a car-jacker, then she watches as her neighbor is shot to death. The NOPD is searching for the gunman, who ran off into the quiet residential neighborhood of Algiers Point Wednesday morning.
It started shortly after 7 a.m. when a woman who lived in the 500 block of Vallette Street walked out to her car, on her way to work. A gunman approached and demanded the keys to her car.
At the same time, a neighbor who lives about three blocks away just happened to be walking his two children to a nearby bus stop, tried to intervene. The gunman shot him from inside the car and ran off into the surrounding neighborhood.
The wounded man staggered to a nearby house and collapsed in the front yard, where police say he died in front of his sons, ages 9 and 11. Sources tell WGNO News that the murdered man, who has been identified as 44-year-old Harry Michael Ainsworth, was an active member of police-community groups in New Orleans.
The suspect in this case is described as a black man in his 20s, 5’6″ to 5’8″ tall, weighing 140-150 lbs. A composite sketch is included in the photo gallery to the left.
Police say it’s the case of a Good Samaritan paying the ultimate price. The woman who was the target of the would-be car-jacker is working with police to construct a composite sketch of the gunman.
Two nearby schools, Behrmann Charter and the International School of Louisiana, were both placed on lockdown for several hours as police searched for the killer.