In Louisiana, a hurricane-induced gas shortage caused one man on Friday afternoon to shoot and murder another in line at a suburban New Orleans pump.
The victim, Dwayne Nosacka, was confronted by the driver of a white minivan at Chevron station, the police stated. During others attempted to de-escalate the situation, the minivan picked up a gun and shot Nosacka onto the chest once before he escaped.
As Nosacka died, certain people continued to gather fuel, Sheriff Joseph Lopinto of Jefferson Parish said on Friday, “There are obviously a lot of witnesses.”
On Saturday, the department reported the arrest of a second-degree murderer, 20-year-old Walter Sippio, a New Orleans resident.
“It is incredible that in this scenario individuals cannot act like adults,” stated the sheriff frustratedly.
“The services are not here, ladies and gentlemen,” he continued. “We haven’t got sufficient gas on. We have not got enough gas supplied to the service stations, we don’t have enough generators on, lines are long and everybody is out of control – but it’s completely ridiculous for someone to lose their lives by getting gas.”
“Stay a few days out of town,” Lopinto urged, adding, “It’s going to be better. It’s going to be better. He’s going to.”
After being hit by Hurricane Ida earlier this week, Louisiana fought hard to get enough fuel to recover power, resulting in hardship-long lineups during a heat wave that has send temperatures reaching the 90’s. Many inhabitants rely on gas-powered generators to cope with storm-induced power outages, and around 900 000 people in Louisiana were still powerless on Thursday.
Reports have been published of screaming and fighting at New Orleans gas stations as people have been filling up several petrol containers and supposedly cutting them in front of them. Lopinto added that he has sent representatives “from place to place” in response to similar disturbances.
“This is high hostilities. It’s not necessary for someone to bring a pistol to a gas station,” Lopinto remarked. “I have no doubt we will resolve this crime, but today no one needed their lives because of frickin’s gas, which is what it’s all about.”
This week, Gov. John Bel Edwards recognized that “all our efforts to restore fuel had an impact” on the fuel scarcity.
According to GasBuddy, which analyzes gasoline use, a majority of the gas stations in major cities — including Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans — were still out of gas as of Saturday.
On Thursday, President Joe Biden asked Energy Minister Jennifer Granholm to “employ all the equipment available to him and to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to maintain gas flows to the pumps.” In the event of damage and relief on Friday, Biden visited Louisiana.
