Zelda Townsend heard a car alarm outside her Mid-City home Wednesday night (May 8), prompting her husband to go outside and look into it, a NOPD Homicide detective wrote in an affidavit.
Townsend’s husband saw a person in the back seat of their vehicle, the detective wrote, and blocked the person’s exit. Townsend, 63, went outside and handed her husband a gun, the document states.
A car NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said police believe was the intended getaway car pulled up to the block in the 2700 block of Cleveland Avenue. The affidavit states a male voice came from the passing car, saying, “Just shoot him. Just shoot him.”
The affidavit asserted probable cause for a second-degree murder arrest warrant for 17-year-old Emanuel Pipkins. It states the person in the burglarized car, who police allege was Pipkins, was still inside Townsend’s vehicle when he “began firing at Zelda Townsend” and her husband.
When officers arrived about 10 p.m., they found Townsend on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head, according to the affidavit sworn by NOPD Detective Barret Morton. She died at the hospital, police said.
Townsend’s husband returned fire, the document states, but was shot in the left arm. Police said Pipkins, who is accused in Townsend’s murder, was struck by gunfire in the exchange. He was booked on the murder charge at the Orleans Justice Center jail Thursday, after being released from the hospital. The Orleans Public Defender’s Office was appointed to represent him Friday.
Police were led to Pipkins after receiving notice someone had arrived at a hospital with a gunshot wound to the back. Pipkins said he was shot by an unknown person in New Orleans East, Morton wrote in the affidavit.
Pipkins aunt and legal guardian who had brought him to the hospital told police she last saw her nephew about 8 p.m. at their apartment in Treme, before she saw he had been wounded by gunfire. Pipkins was with his girlfriend, the aunt told police, and they left in a gray Acura sedan – the same description of the car that fled the Cleveland Avenue crime scene.
Officers canvassing the area after the fatal shooting found the Acura at St. Philips and North Miro streets. The car had been reported stolen prior to the shooting, officers learned. Pipkins’ aunt told police she believed the Acura belonged to Pipkins’ girlfriend’s relative. The affidavit does not make clear if the aunt would have known the Acura was reported stolen.
An eyewitness at the scene told investigators they knew Pipkins, that Pipkins burglarized cars, and that he had gone to the block where the gunfire exchange occurred to “break into vehicles and commit burglaries,” the affidavit states. The person also said they saw Pipkins get confronted by an armed man while inside a vehicle. The witness told police they then heard heard gunfire and saw Pipkins running toward South White Street – the same direction another witness said Pipkins ran on foot after the shooting. That witness said they saw Pipkins with a blue steel handgun earlier on the day of the fatal shooting, Morton wrote.
A search of Pipkins’ home turned up a 9mm handgun in an air conditioning vent, the affidavit states. Police found spent shell casings that appeared to be 9 mm in size in or around Townsend’s vehicle, Morton wrote.
Orleans Parish Magistrate Commissioner Jonathan Friedman set Pipkins’ bond at $750,000, court records show.
At a news conference Thursday, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell remarked on Pipkins’ age, noting he had recently turned 17 -- booking records list his birthday in February -- and called on parents to be accountable for their children’s whereabouts. Ferguson also spoke of the need for parents, as well as NOPD and others in the criminal justice system to improve in their approach to juvenile crime.
“I’m disgusted,” Ferguson said about the shooting. “I’m disheartened. I’m upset. I’m angry. And I’m disappointed.”
Ferguson prefaced by saying he was “not here today to point any fingers,” before asking New Orleans residents to avoid confronting potential perpetrators, and to call police if they are being victimized.
https://www.nola.com
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