Inset: Carl Morgan (Brennan’s New Orleans). Background: The New Orleans church where Morgan was killed while waiting for his son to get out of day care (Google Maps).
A 23-year-old man in Louisiana is accused of murdering a 36-year-old father who was in a church parking lot waiting to collect his child from day care.
Raymond Wells, who later sustained a gunshot wound to the head and remains in critical condition, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the killing of Carl Morgan, according to authorities.
The New Orleans Police Department reported that officers responded to gunfire near the 3600 block of Bienville Street around 5 p.m. on Tuesday. Upon arrival, they discovered shell casings and multiple vehicles that had been shot. They soon found an adult male victim — identified as Morgan — with multiple gunshot wounds. Morgan was declared dead in the back parking area of a church and nursery on the 3400 block of Canal Street.
Detectives immediately began canvassing the area and searching for the shooter.
NOPD Chief of Detectives Nicholas Gernon indicated that investigators quickly determined Morgan was the victim of a carjacking. Using the department’s automatic license plate reading technology, they tracked the car to a location on Interstate 10.
Police discovered Wells, the alleged shooter, inside the car with a gunshot wound to the head. He was taken to a local hospital where he remains in an “extremely grave condition,” according to Gernon. Despite Wells’ condition, authorities managed to obtain an arrest warrant charging him with first-degree murder.
Gernon said that the investigation into who shot Wells is being conducted by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
“The victim was simply in the parking lot picking up his child from nursery when Mr. Wells tried to carjack him and subsequently killed him,” Gernon said. “It was a truly horrible scene and a horrible crime.”
In response to a question from one of the journalists present, Gernon said investigators believe Wells was “up to something in that block” just prior to the murder, possibly breaking into cars in the area.
“Some individuals saw [Wells] and for some reason he opened fire on them,” he said. “Then he fled to the back side of the church where he encountered our carjacking victim.”
Local Fox affiliate WVUE reported that Morgan was a sous chef at Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans and those who knew him reportedly told the station that his child meant the world to him.
“What was most important was his son and how much of a dad he was,” Brennan’s Restaurant General Manager Christian Pendleton said.
