Louisiana

Police ID intoxicated man who hit Mardi Gras crowd

The New Orleans Police Department on Sunday identified the man who allegedly plowed into a crowd enjoying a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans while intoxicated as Neilson Rizzuto, 25. Jail records showed he was arrested on a number of charges and was being held at the city’s jail.

The accident happened Saturday during one of the busiest nights of Mardi Gras when thousands of people throng the streets of Mid-City to watch the elaborate floats and clamor to catch beads and trinkets tossed from riders.

“We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated,” Police Chief Michael Harrison said Saturday evening.

Harrison was asked by the media if terrorism was suspected. Although he didn’t say “No,” he said it looked like a case of DWI.

Twenty-one people were hospitalized after the crash, with five victims taken to the trauma center in guarded condition. However, their conditions did not seem to be life-threatening, said Jeff Elder, city emergency services director.

Seven others declined to be hospitalized, he said.

— Associated Press

Pennsylvania

Headstones vandalized at Jewish cemetery

More than 100 headstones have been vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, damage discovered less than a week after similar vandalism in Missouri, authorities said.

A man visiting the cemetery called police at 9:40 a.m. Sunday to report that three of his relatives’ headstones had been knocked over and damaged.

“The cemetery was inspected and approximately 100 additional headstones were found to be knocked over,” apparently sometime after dark Saturday, a police spokeswoman said in a statement. A criminal mischief-institutional vandalism investigation will be conducted by the police’s Northeast Detectives Division, she said.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia lists Mount Carmel as a Jewish cemetery.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon called the report “shocking and a source of worry,” although he added that he had “full confidence” that authorities in the United States would be able to catch and punish those responsible.

The damage comes less than a week after a Jewish cemetery in suburban St. Louis reported more than 150 headstones vandalized, many of them tipped over.

Aaron Mallin told WPVI-TV that he discovered the damage when he came to visit his father’s grave.

— Associated Press