LAFAYETTE, La. — Two shootings in Lafayette over the weekend, left neighbors shocked by the city's escalating violence.
"We moved here from the New Orleans area and coming from NOLA, it was like a murder every day and we come here and you would never see anything on the news, never hear about shootings or murders, now it's becoming, not an everyday occurrence but quite frequently anyway," said Christoferson.
Raymond Christoferson and his wife Tanya moved to Acadiana from LaPlace in 2008. They tell KATC, choosing Lafayette was easy because it was quiet and calm but say that is changing.
"You know we notice it more and more as it's getting closer and closer to our neighborhood," he says.
Saturday night the couple woke up to the sound of multiple gunshots. Their home is right off West Congress Street where a shooting happened around 3 a.m.
"Several times we have been woken up more and more so recently," said Tanya.
Officers say the West Congress shooting happened in the West Mart Village parking lot. One individual fired into a crowd, leaving one person injured.
Earlier that night, a shooting occurred near Hellen Street around 10:40 p.m. resulting in a fatality. The shooting took place during a house party leaving three people injured, including a minor.
As neighbors raised questions about whether the incidents were related, KATC asked Matthew Benoit, Public Information Officer for the Lafayette Police Department if the shootings were indeed related.
"We have no information right now that both shootings are related to each other," Benoit said.
For Tanya, living in the New Orleans area was tough enough and now she's worried some of her worst fears have followed her family.
"It's kind of scary when it's here in Lafayette because when we moved here you just didn't hear about those things it's changed us since we moved here and we find there's a lot more going on than there used to be."
Police are urging anyone with information on either shooting to make a tip to Crime Stoppers at 232-TIPS.
