Guard Killed in New Orleans FEMA Park

NEW ORLEANS - A security guard at a FEMA trailer park was shot to death Monday in the latest violence to rack the city still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina, police said. The shooting, around 5:15 a.m., was at a trailer park in Gentilly, a section of the city that flooded during Katrina. A few hours earlier, another man was shot and killed near the Guste public housing complex.

The latest violence brought the number of homicides in the city this year to 34. Last year, New Orleans counted 161.

Police spokeswoman Sabrina Richardson said the security guard was shot in the face in a security booth at a gate leading into the site. She said two other security guards were on duty at the time, but one was at the park's back gate and another was in a bathroom. The other guards told investigators they did not hear the shot, Richardson said.

Resident Kenny Randle said the park has been a safe place to stay with his two nephews, who played football with the guards.

"It's always been safe. I've never at any time felt in harm's way," he said. "That doesn't change."

Steven Nicholas, a chief in the police department, said the guard was about 50 years old. A motive for the shooting had not been established, although he said "robbery does not appear to be a motive."

Police shut down the exits to the trailer park and went door to door asking residents about the incident.

Ronnie Simpson, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said there are 3,000 FEMA trailers in New Orleans on group sites, and there have been isolated crime problems.

But until Monday's killing, Simpson said, there had been "nothing of this magnitude" involving a FEMA contractor or staff.

FEMA officials also were dealing Monday with the evacuation of nearly 60 families from an FEMA trailer park in Hammond, about 45 miles northwest of New Orleans, that had been plagued by sewage leaks and power outages.

"They know how to put me out, but they don't know how to help me out. That's how I look at it," said one resident, Alsee Tobias.

FEMA officials said all the displaced families had at least temporary new homes and they hoped to dismantle the site by the end of the week.