New Orleans, La. - A father found his son's body in front of an elementary school in Central City Tuesday.
18-year-old Jamal Christian's body was hidden in shrubs in front of Mahalia Jackson Elementary, at the corner of S. Robertson and Jackson Avenue. Police say Christian, from New Orleans East, may have been shot in the back.
"We was over here Sunday at church and I was getting everybody out of the parking lot, because that's my job, bringing them in and bringing them out to get their cars, and all of a sudden we heard gunfire back here," said Central City resident Harold Augustine.
Augustine says that was Sunday afternoon. He and some of Christian's family went looking for him around 9:00 Tuesday morning.
"The mother, the father, the uncle and the rest of the family came down. We searched all the abandoned houses down here to try to find out where the lady's son was at," said Augustine.
According to the New Orleans Police Department, the teen's family filed a missing person report Monday around 6:30 p.m.
Now members of the homicide division are trying to determine if this homicide is related to a shooting that happened Sunday evening, a few blocks away from the elementary school. There, police say, a man was shot in the foot after shots were fired following a second line in Central City.
"Right now we're in the preliminary parts of the investigation to try and make sure if in fact that was the case," said NOPD spokesman Frank Robertson.
"When all the shooting and everything happened, they said they had three guys running from here, but only two guys ran up Jackson Street," said Augustine.
Interim Orleans Parish School Superintendent Stan Smith says students were already in class when the body was found, so they immediately went into lockdown.
"We also locked down the rest of the facilities which included the library, the health clinic, and things of that nature to allow the police to come in and do their work on the crime scene," said Smith.
Smith says there's 24-7 camera surveillance, and security guards are on duty when the building is occupied. Surveillance video has been turned over to NOPD.
Anyone with information on Jamal Christian's murder should call CRIMESTOPPERS at 504-822-1111.
Police investigate a body found outside Mahalia Jackson Elem. School Tuesday morning
