sad story from New Orleans

[Prof Steven P Hill]

Dear colleagues:

The attached news item tonight on another list-server caught my eye,
b/c the latest victim shared my surname, Hill (although not related). 
And her husband has a Baltic surname (Gailiunas).  I trust that this 
epidemic of shootings is concentrated far from the neighborhood 
of the AAASS conference hotel.

Sincerely,
Steven P Hill,
University of Illinois.
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Date: Thu 4 Jan 23:23:19 CST 2007
From: <LISTSERV at LSV.UKY.EDU> 
Subject: Re: GETPOST AMIA-L 
To: Steven P Hill <S-HILL4 at UIUC.EDU> 

Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 19:01:17 -0600
From: Larry Urbanski <larryu at URBANSKIFILM.COM> 
Subject: Helen Hill killed 

New Orleans sees homicide epidemic
05:32 PM CST on Thursday, January 4, 2007
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS – An independent filmmaker was the latest victim of New 
Orleans' homicide epidemic – the fifth of five people to die violently in 
a 14-hour span; her husband, a physician who treats the city's poor, 
was injured in the Thursday morning shooting.
Police did not release the names. But weeping friends and neighbors 
who gathered in front of the little white house where the killing occurred
identified them as filmmaker Helen Hill and Dr. Paul Gailiunas. They had
moved to the area of the city known as the Faubourg Marigny with their 
son about a year after Hurricane Katrina wiped out their home in the 
Mid-City neighborhood.
Police said both were shot at their front door about 5:30 a.m. Thursday.
No other details were available.  [ .... ]  "They were wonderful people. 
Two bright spots in New Orleans. They gave us hope that people could 
live together. And they'd do anything for anybody," said Sheri Branch, 
who was taking care of the couple's 2-year-old son while Gailiunas was 
hospitalized.
Hill was among five people shot to death in unrelated incidents spanning
14 hours – three Wednesday night and two Thursday morning. Those, 
along with a New Year's Day killing brought the 2007 total to six.  Police 
also were investigating the suspicious death of a woman but the case had 
not been ruled a homicide as of Thursday.
Hill made short films; her experimental animation shorts had been shown 
at a number of festivals in the United States and Canada.  [ .... ] A Harvard 
graduate, she earned her master of fine arts in experimental animation 
from the California Institute of the Arts in 1995.  Gailiunas, who was in 
stable condition Thursday, opened a clinic for poor people in the Treme 
neighborhood in 2004. It was flooded by Katrina a year later. [ .... ]
No witnesses to any of the killings has come forward, police said 
Thursday, begging for help to solve the most recent murders. Assistant 
Superintendent Steven Nicholas described the recent killings as brazen 
acts, often committed in broad daylight and, in one case, within a block 
of police officers. As police have in the past, Nicholas said police work 
is hamstrung without witnesses.
At a news conference on Monday, Police Superintendent Warren Riley 
said homicides in the city spiked in April, May and July, but had become 
less frequent – something he credited to police initiatives.
Police spokeswoman Bambi Hall said after 19 killings in October and 
another 19 in November, December's total was 15. There were 161 
homicides in the city in 2006. New Orleans' murder rate was 7 to 10 
times the national average for cities of its size in 2005, the latest 
period for which complete data is available. [ ....]
National Guard troops and state police were brought in to help patrol 
some neighborhoods after five teenagers were killed in one night in 
June 2006.  The Guard focused on areas most devastated by Hurricane 
Katrina so police could focus on higher-crime areas. Their patrols are 
expected to continue this year.  [ .... ]
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