FOX 8 CRIMETRACKER: Carjacking Investigations in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) - "He had me at gunpoint. It was a black gun, but I don't know anything about guns."

A victim describes her terrifying ordeal when a gunmen demanded her keys, and then took off in her vehicle, right in front of her Gentilly home.

"I can't even tell you how this person looked. All I really saw was that gun," says the victim.

Carjacking is a crime that, so far this year, has not affected every district in the city.

In this CRIMETRACKER Investigation, FOX 8 obtained the incident report numbers, locations and time of day for every carjacking since January 1st of this year until March 16th.

Police report no carjackings in the 2nd district which covers Uptown and the 4th district which covers Algiers and English Turn.

The carjackings though are happening most frequently this year in the 3rd district.

People who live along Bellaire Dr. in Lakeview were taken aback in January when a gunman robbed a man heading out on a hunting trip.

"He confronted him and produced a weapon, demanded his vehicle and then took off in the vehicle. The victim then notified us," says Commander Gary Marchese.

The robber got away with the victim's truck, a cell phone and two shotguns.

That carjacking was one of six in the 3rd district, which also covers Gentilly where police investigated other incidents.

For example, on Duplessis Street where residents say it's usually quiet. Police were called out to a bizarre carjacking in January.

"Someone carjacked an Entergy man and took his truck. They went on to rob someone else and did some other stuff," says Udell Murphy.

Earlier this month, in New Orleans East on Woodbine, there was another usual carjacking. A pizza delivery driver was in the neighborhood to deliver a pizza when a man walked up to the car and demanded the driver out of the vehicle.

Woodbine Drive is in the 7th District where police investigated five carjackings since January 1st.

Law enforcement classifies carjackings as a 64J.

While so far, the NOPD's classified 16 incidents this year as 64J's or carjackings, the list right now may not be complete.

That's because, the NOPD admits all police reports will be reviewed by March 31st, the end of the first quarter.

During that review some incidents, classified as armed robbery, may change to carjacking.

One case that may be re-classified is an incident that happened last month, when a taxi driver picked up a man and woman at Canal and Bourbon.

The male passenger pulled a gun on the taxi driver, and demanded the driver get out of the cab.

The NOPD tells FOX 8, the only way for a case to be classified as a carjacking is if the victim is inside of the vehicle at the time of the armed robbery.

For example, the case, where two men pushed a 68-year-old woman to the ground, stole her keys and took off in her vehicle, will likely not be re-classified as a carjacking, even though her car was stolen.

The 16 carjackings so far this year is slightly lower than the same period last year when the NOPD investigated 22 carjackings.

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