EBR security higher for Fourth

• By JARED JANES
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 1, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The city-parish announced plans Monday to beef up law enforcement presence at Friday’s Fourth of July celebration on the Mississippi River levee and use other tactics designed to prevent a recurrence of last year’s shootings that seriously injured two innocent bystanders.

Baton Rouge Police Chief Jeff LeDuff said during a news conference with Mayor-President Kip Holden that more police officers will be present at this year’s event and they will be aided by deputies from the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s and City Constable’s offices.

Both uniformed and plainclothes authorities will be dispersed throughout downtown — including on boats, bicycles and horses — looking for potential problems, such as large groups congregating and pushing their way through the crowd, LeDuff said.

Authorities will also use four new lighting, audio and visual towers — similar to ones used by law enforcement in New Orleans during Mardi Gras — to monitor the crowd, he said.

At the end of the celebration, authorities also will use the towers to light up the levee and other areas and begin encouraging people to leave downtown, LeDuff said.

The increased law enforcement presence is in response to last year’s shootings, Holden said, and to send a message that the city-parish will not let violence mar the holiday’s festivities again.

“We’re not going to sit idly by and allow a few little jerks to come in and destroy a family event for this city,” Holden said. “The message is very loud, and it’s very clear.”

Still, Glenda Blunschi, the mother of the one of the victims, said she thought there was little that law enforcement could have done to prevent last year’s shooting.

Last year’s fireworks display had been finished for more than 30 minutes when Kayla Smith, 17, and Robert Blunschi, 22, were caught in a gunfire exchange on the levee.

About 80 officers were working the downtown festival last year and responded quickly, detained and released four men after the shooting. One of the four men, Devin Deon Collins, 20, 137 Taylor St., was eventually arrested and indicted on counts of attempted second-degree murder along with another man, Marvin Brown, 17, 1017 E. Polk St. They are still awaiting trial.

Robert Blunschi has not been out of treatment facilities since he was shot in the head as he walked with Smith that day, Glenda Blunschi said. The former power lifter cannot walk or talk and consumes liquids through a feeding tube, his mother said.

Smith, whose spinal cord was grazed by a bullet, is now able to walk but cannot do so without the use of a walker and braces on her legs, her mother, Jennifer Scallan, said. Smith will return home this week from a third spinal cord recovery center where she is relearning how to walk, Scallan said.

Glenda Blunschi said she talked to LeDuff recently as he told her about safety precautions for this weekend and added that she thinks the city-parish will do all it can to ensure a safe weekend, but she expressed doubts that incidents like last year’s can be stopped.