St. Louis Street resident brings concerns over violence to City Council

Unnerved by a recent shooting in his neighborhood, a resident of Zachary’s St. Louis Street pleaded with the City Council on Feb. 27 to take action against violent crime.

The resident, Perry Williams, told the council of being awaked by gunfire a couple of weeks prior.

“One of my neighbors decided to change the zoning of our neighborhood from residential to war zone,” he said, describing hearing about 30 rounds being fired late at night.

“I would like to know what the plan is to stop that,” he told council members.

The incident Williams was referring to remained under investigation at the time of the meeting.

“This is still an open case that we’re working,” Police Chief Darryl Lawrence confirmed in a text message after the meeting. “It appears to be an isolated incident.”

Council members tried to reassure Williams.

Council member Ambre DeVirgilio said her husband, a retired New York Police Department sergeant who now works in Baton Rouge for the district attorney’s office, was called to the scene on St. Louis Street.

“I understand,” she told Williams.

“So it happened four houses from your house and rolled you out of bed at 10:30 at night?” Williams responded.

“Sir, in Baton Rouge, I’ve had a gun held to my head at LSU. I get it. I get it. I can tell you that the five of us — we understand the safety,” DeVirgilio said, gesturing to her colleagues on the council. “But we are not a law enforcement authority.”

She and others encouraged Williams to talk with the police chief about his concerns. Council member Jennifer Boyd, who represents the St. Louis Street area and lives a few streets away from the shooting site, urged him to participate in her quarterly District 5 update meetings, where crime is a regular topic of discussion.

Boyd also told Williams about her efforts to assemble a crime prevention commission — an initiative that came about in the wake of a fatal July 2023 shooting of an 18-year-old in her district. Once it gets up and running, the commission will bring together community members, city leaders and police to address crime, she said.

“We’re going to work on lots of preventive things — lots of things like funding for extra equipment, funding for what the police officers need, maybe more officers if we get enough funding for it,” Boyd said. “The commission’s going to be put in place to help us think outside the box.”

“Hopefully that will help you feel better,” she added.