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Thomas' is the second killing in three days in this city that occurred near an inoperable crime camera. The first was Brian Thickstin, 37, who was fatally shot Saturday night in the 2800 block of Chippewa Street in the Irish Channel.

Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman, Ceeon Quiett, confirmed that both cameras don't work -- along with scores of others in the city. She blamed the camera damage on Hurricane Gustav and said the city has started repairing them and will repair all of them soon.

But complaints about inoperable -- or merely ineffective and expensive -- crime cameras have dogged the city since it launched the controversial crime-fighting effort.

Ricks stood near the camera that might have captured the killing of his 22-year-old stepson. A green van traveled down the 2400 block of North Villere Street shortly before 9 p.m. Monday, unleashing the bullets that felled Thomas and wounded two others.

Ricks sipped from a sweaty beer can and paced the sidewalk. His family knows that only about half of all murders end in an arrest -- and substantially fewer end in convictions. They know evidence is often scarce, witnesses often scared. They don't know why the camera on the corner -- a tool the mayor once pitched as the unassailable witness -- does not work.
-The Times-Picayune

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NOLAFugees 2008 New Orleans Murder Map

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murder , 8th ward