New Orleans 2015 Homicide Rate Up After Dropping For 2 Years

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans homicide rate jumped 10 percent in 2015 after falling to a 43-year low in 2014.

         Police spokesman Tyler Gamble said in a news release Friday that detectives investigated 165 homicides last year.

         Gamble said the homicide rate in 2014 had dropped to 150, a 43-year low. The year before that, 155 people were slain. In 2012, a total of 190 were slain, down nine from 2011.

         Six people died in the last week of 2015, including a young couple and their unborn child.

         In a nonfatal shooting in late November, 17 people were wounded at a playground when two rival gangs started shooting at one another.

         Nine suspects have been arrested. Each has been booked with 17 counts of attempted murder.