Friends want justice after bodies found shot, burned in Algiers

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) - The New Orleans coroner on Tuesday identified two bodies found shot and burning in Algiers more than a week ago.

"I'm still thinking it was a dream, like we're going to wake up from it or something," Kewone Carto said.

Carto says she grew up with 18-year-old Shantrell Parker, who was killed alongside 20-year-old Gavonte Lampkin on July 29. She says Lampkin was the father of Parker's two children.

The coroner determined their cause of death to be gunshot wounds.

New Orleans police and the fire department responded to a brush fire in an Algiers neighborhood around 11:30 that Sunday night.

"I was sleeping. I heard the fire truck come through, and I peeped out the door, so I went back inside. The next morning, I get up, I see the police, detectives, ambulance, detectives down on Maumus and Bennett," said Ronald Mayo, who lives in the neighborhood.

Police say the fire burned the bodies of Parker and Lampkin beyond recognition.

"This never happens around here. This is a quiet neighborhood. I've been back here 10 years and never had such thing back here like that," Mayo said.

Neighbors say they avoid going in the wooded area where the bodies were found.

"The pole lights don't work, so it's just dark back there," said Mayo. "I don't go that way at all unless it's daytime."

Charred patches of grass are the only signs left from the homicide, leaving friends wondering why Parker's life was cut short.

"We're still in denial. Like we still cannot believe it was her," said Carto. "She was a good girl. She stayed out of trouble, she wasn't a bad girl. She only wanted to work and take care of her two kids. Her two sons," Carto said.

Carto says she's tired of all the violence

"Any other time, people probably looking like, 'wow like just another person that got shot,' until it happens to you. And when it happens to you, that's when you gotta take a stand," said Carto, "You don't expect this type of stuff to happen. Especially to someone you know so close."

All she can hope for now is to find out who did it and why.

"I wanted to put flowers down and let her know that we here, even though she not here. I just wanted her to know that we here, we're praying for her and we're hoping that we can get justice for her," Carto said.

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