Three Shot At New Orleans Parade

A parade intended to show unity and support for the city's rebuilding was instead marred by violence Sunday when shots rang out, wounding three people as the event drew to a close.

Not long after the parade wrapped up, police officers patrolling the route heard gunfire. They then found a 34-year-old man with multiple wounds, police spokesman Gary Flot said.

Minutes later, after more shots rang out, officers discovered an 18-year-old woman wounded in the leg. A man, 20, also was shot in the leg, in the same area.

All three were admitted to local hospitals, where the 34-year-old was listed in guarded condition; the 20-year-old was in fair condition, and the 18-year-old in good condition Sunday night, Flot said. Their names were not immediately available.

A crowd of thousands had gathered for what had been a festive occasion for New Orleanians determined to make their way back from temporary homes in places such as Houston and Atlanta.

The Social Aid & Pleasure Club All-Star Second-Line featured clubs marching in support of New Orleans' renewal and their own role in the city's future.

"This is not what I came back here to see," said Delanda Garner, who has been staying in Houston.

Also, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called on black people to rebuild the city, which was more than 60 percent black before Katrina displaced about three-quarters of its population.

Hurricane Katrina debris along New Orleans' Martin Luther King Boulevard, a grassy median near a King statue and memorial, had been cleaned up in advance of the King Holiday parade that ended there Monday, but many nearby buildings remained abandoned and in ruins.

"This city will be a majority African American city," Nagin told a crowd at City Hall. "It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."