A single mom was shot dead by a stray bullet along New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street after a night out celebrating her 33rd birthday Sunday — leaving her two young kids orphaned.
Jessica Williams, a mother from Chicago, was visiting the Big Easy for a special birthday trip with family and rare downtime away from her kids when she was killed in an out-of-control, early morning street shooting.
“Tomorrow about me,” Williams had written on Facebook shortly before flying to Louisiana.
She was joined by her younger siblings, her mother, cousins and other family members when their celebratory trip turned tragic, her cousin Kardajia Wells said.
The plan was simple. Spend the weekend celebrating, see the sights, and return to Chicago on Sunday — the day Williams turned 33.
“That was the goal, to just celebrate her and my cousin who just graduated college, so we were going to celebrate the both of them,” Wells told ABC 7.
The party was slowly but surely moving back to their hotel room after a night out in the French Quarter, a historic neighborhood in New Orleans, flushed with tourist attractions and nightlife hotspots, when they spotted a fight forming along Bourbon Street around 2 a.m.
“On our way, leaving, two guys got into an altercation, and we’re not thinking that they’re going to pull out any weapons or any of that, because it’s a big crowd,” Wells told the outlet.
The tussle, though, quickly devolved into a full-on “shootout” when at least one of the men pulled out a gun, New Orleans police said. Bullets were seemingly sprayed at random and struck three people, including Williams and her younger sister.
The other two victims were treated for their wounds at a nearby hospital, but Williams died at the scene, according to the New Orleans Police Department.
“How do you go to another city and just try to have some fun and return with everyone but one person?” Wells heartbreakingly said.
Two women and a man identified as people of interest were questioned by police, but no arrests have been made. Cops are still looking for “a heavyset black male” last seen wearing a black and white hoodie at the scene, according to the NOPD.
Now, Williams’ family — many of whom witnessed the fatal shooting — are trying to navigate next steps while supporting her second-grade daughter and son, who just started preschool.
“I thought I was going to be OK, and I thought that I can get past this, that tomorrow was going to get better, but I can’t see it getting better,” Wells told ABC 7.
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