Bernell James Death; 14-Year-Old Student of Kipp Morial School Identified As Victim of Murder

Family members recognized 14-year-old Bernell James, an 8th pupil at Kipp Morial School, as the New Orleans East Tuesday victim. This week, three teens were shot and murdered nearby.

At 5 p.m. Tuesday, NOPD officers responded to the Chateau D’Orleans apartment complex on Chef Menteur Highway. James was shot in a flat. He died before hospitalization.

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office reported a Metairie teenager shot and killed that day. WWL-TV learned he was a teenager, but the coroner has not published his identity or age. Police suspect he and another adolescent were fighting with a gun in a Lake Avenue residence when it went off.

Layla Scott, 17, was one of two people slain in a shooting at Esplanade and North Claiborne Avenues on Sunday night. The NOPD reported that many people fired at Scott and 24-year-old Ahmontae Wishom. Wishom died at the site, while Scott died shortly after hospitalization.

More deaths saddened Akasia Lee-Nicholas, founder of local group Sheroes, which connects mothers who lost children. She told WWL-TV, “Somebody else is a member of a club we didn’t subscribe to.” I’m wondering when it will stop. When will mothers no longer bury children? When will it choose automobiles and mansions over caskets?

Lee-Nicholas said this week’s three tragedies are especially devastating since mourning families struggle around the holidays. “When I fix meals that I know he would like I can just hear him saying, yeah, Mama, I want a plate of that,” she said of her epileptic son Devon, who died in 2019.

Sheroes hosts a Christmas party for mothers.

Call 504-603-6624 or email to contact the group. Here you can also provide contact information.