Thursday 2 June 2022 04:55 AM PICTURED: Grandmother, 80, shot dead at New Orleans high school graduation trends now
An 80-year-old woman was shot dead by a stray bullet just moments after watching her grandson receive his high school diploma.
Augustine Greenwood, 80, was walking from Xavier University's Convocation Center in New Orleans -where Morris Jeff High School was holding its graduation ceremony - back to her family's car at around 11.45am Tuesday, when she was struck by a stray bullet.
The family was about to head out to a meal celebrating her grandson, Corey Lashley Jr.'s graduation from high school that morning when the mother of six daughters and grandmother to 15 was shot.
Paramedics brought her to a local hospital, NOLA.com reports, but she was pronounced dead later in the afternoon.
By around 6pm, her daughter, Geraldine Greenwood-Lashley, took to Facebook to call out the gun violence that took her mother's life.
'Please people stop the violence,' she wrote, including 'a message to the young ladies that started all of this: “Today you took my world away from me and my family, all you had to do was walk away. It was graduation for my son, my mom was so happy to see her youngest grandchild graduate. You have ruined my son and families world, all you had to do was walk away.”
'I am going to pray for you, may the Lord have mercy on you,' she added. 'I love you mama, you are with your heavenly family now.'
Two other unidentified men were also shot - one in the shoulder, and the other in the leg - but are expected to survive, according to the Associated Press.
Augustine Greenwood, 80, was struck by a stray bullet on Tuesday morning and was pronounced dead at a local hospital later in the afternoon
Greenwood, left, had been attending her grandson's high school graduation - which was held at Xavier University's Convocation Center in New Orleans - when the shooting occurred
Her daughter Geraldine Greenwood-Lashley, took to Facebook to call out the gun violence that took her mother's life
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New Orleans Police Department Deputy Chief Christopher Goodly said the shooting began after a fight between two women in the parking lot.
He said in a news conference on Wednesday morning that two to three people had been brought in for questioning, but no arrests have been made in the shooting.
'This did not have to happen,' he told WWL-TV.
'We had a good amount of security here, interior coverage and exterior coverage,' he said. 'Xavier Police were on the scene along with Second District Police.'
Guns were later found on the scene, and police are continuing to investigate the shooting.
Those who graduated on Tuesday recounted the terrifying moments the shooting unfolded, as the Morris Jeff High School graduation was letting out.
'We just heard gunshots,' one of the graduating seniors told WWL-TV. 'They were fighting, my cousin said "they're fighting over there, let's go." Then I heard gunshots.'
Another graduate told the news
