Friends say 33-year old Ahmad Sheppard was helping a neighbor in trouble when he was shot to death.
WGNO News Reporter Darian Trotter spoke to friends of the popular Bourbon Street Disc Jockey.
“I woke up to phone calls,” James Sims said. “Phone was ringing, everybody asking if I was okay.”
Turns out James Sims was okay; but his neighbor two buildings down was not.
shooting_victimHomicide detectives spent much of the day, Friday, piecing together events that led up to Ahmad Sheppard’s untimely death.
“I never dreamed this would happen to him because he was so laid back so mellow; called his momma every day, you know,” the victim’s landlord Joe Zara said. “That kind of guy.”
Friends of Ahmad Sheppard thumbed through pictures of their friend; recounting happier times.
“Clean cut guy, always wore like a suits and fedoras,” former co-worker Romallis Edwards said. “Always smoked cigars and stuff.” “Just a real cool laid back type of guy.”
Investigators say the 33-year old was found just before 1 a.m, next door to his apartment, located in the 2-thousand block of Prytania Street in the lower garden district.
Apparently there was a disturbance at his neighbor’s.
Investigators say the place was ransacked.
“Just the other day, I just talked to him,” Edwards said.
Romallis Edwards is a former co-worker and friend.
He says word of Sheppard’s death is spreading fast along Bourbon Street; where the Houston native worked at various strip clubs the past twelve years as a host, and, or disc jokey.
“Somebody next door was getting beat on or something like that and he went in to save them and somehow they got into an altercation and they shot him,” Edwards said.
“That’s unfortunate you know,” Sims said. “It’s scary.” “Somebody come looking out for their neighbor and end up losing their life over it, that’s no good.”
“I think he may have head some noise and came out to see what was going on and got caught up in it,” Zara said.
Joe Zara was Sheppard’s landlord the past 9-months.
He agrees with the Bourbon Street crowd. He says Ahmad Sheppard wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I will miss him dearly because he was such a good person,” Zara said. “He was the kind of guy you’d want as a friend.”
Late Friday there had been no arrest in the case.
Police are also looking for a 2008 jeep Cherokee that was stolen from the neighbor.
If you have information in the case, call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.