Mandinas murder suspect left drivers license, social security card in getaway vehicle, warrant
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - New details have emerged in the death of Hilbert Walker III, a 23-year-old Mandina’s employee who was fatally shot while working during the first weekend of Jazz Fest.
According to an arrest warrant for the suspected gunman, 22-year-old Kyron Fazande, video surveillance shows Walker delivering to-go orders to a patron outside the restaurant when a red sedan approaches and stops on Canal Street. Two individuals exited the vehicle - one armed with a rifle, the other with a handgun, the document states. The shooters targeted Walker, firing multiple rounds even after he collapsed. A 55-year-old woman inside the restaurant was also injured.
“This was pure and simple an intentional murder,” says Rafael Goyeneche with the Metropolitan Crime Commission. “This was a target that they were waiting for, and when the opportunity presented itself, they opened fire.”
The warrant states a security guard on duty heard the gunshots and intervened, firing six rounds at the assailants.
“The security guard that was out there, when he realized what was happening, he stepped in,” says Goyeneche. “He attempted to prevent the further injury and loss of life and actually moved some people around to protect them from the gunfire that was going on.”
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The suspects fled the scene. Shortly after, the New Orleans Police Department received a report of a hit and run involving a red sedan in the 200 block of South White Street.
Investigators determined it was the same vehicle used in Walker’s killing. Police released still images from surveillance videos apparently showing Fazande walking away from the crash.
According to the warrant, Fazende’s driver’s license and social security card were found in the vehicle.
Fazande was later apprehended in Houston, where he was involved in the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old at an apartment complex days later.
Houston Police discovered a handgun in the apartment, which ballistics testing linked to the casings found at the Mandina’s shooting. The same weapon has also been connected to three other shootings, including a homicide during a mass shooting in New Orleans in 2019.
“The question becomes, are there any other crimes that this weapon could be linked to?” says Goyeneche.
Fazande was extradited from Texas to New Orleans where he remains locked up in the Orleans Parish Jail.
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