Sefira Fialkoff and Kevin Oliva cannot think of anyone who would want to shoot them.
Yet the two motorists — who don’t know each other and have never met — said that’s exactly what happened to them minutes apart on Friday night when they were driving in separate cars within two miles of Interstate 10 in New Orleans. A stranger pulled up next to their respective cars, aimed a gun and squeezed the trigger more than once.
Fialkoff, 33, was grazed on her left side, near her hip. Oliva, 21, was wounded in his left leg.
The day before each was wounded, yet another motorist, a 37-year-old woman, was shot on I-10 near where Fialkoff was struck, also by someone in a passing vehicle.
Fialkoff and Oliva said police have led them to think their attacks are related to other reported incidents — meaning that, in all likelihood, each was picked at random by the same person or people. Police wouldn’t comment on the accounts by Oliva and Fialkoff other than to issue a statement saying, “The investigation into these incidents remain open and very active.”
Fialkoff and Oliva said they are now speaking out in hopes that increased attention on their cases helps police find whoever might be randomly firing at people on the highway.
“I’m really lucky that I wasn’t more gravely injured, so while I’m extremely grateful for that, I also know that the next person might not be so lucky,” Fialkoff said. “So for me that highlights the urgency of catching whoever did this.”
Oliva was in the car with his girlfriend when he was shot. He said the encounter has badly rattled both him and her.
“My girlfriend … has been having nightmares over what happened for three nights now,” Oliva said.
While gun violence has plagued New Orleans for years, it is rare for people to get shot at random. Most shooting victims are targeted by someone they know and with whom they are at odds. When someone is shot by a stranger, it is usually during a robbery, an argument that erupted during a chance encounter or because of stray gunfire meant for someone else.
But the New Orleans area experienced a high-profile, troubling exception just last year. Sean Barrette, 24, of Metairie, was charged with indiscriminately shooting at drivers and passengers of vehicles during a two-week spree in June 2019, killing four people while taking aim at but missing three others. Barrette’s attorney has argued that the accused gunman is severely mentally ill.
New Orleans police have stopped well short of linking the shootings of Oliva, Fialkoff and the third unidentified motorist this month. But sources with knowledge of the investigation conceded that police brass had taken note of the pattern: Three shootings on I-10, relatively close to one another and just a day apart, each with a victim who reported being fired on for no discernible reason.
The first of the shootings occurred Thursday at about 1:25 a.m. when when the 37-year-old victim was driving west on I-10 near the Tulane and Carrollton avenue interchange. Another car approached, and someone in it fired into her car, striking her. The other car fled. The woman drove herself to a hospital.
On Friday at about 9:05 p.m., Fialkoff was on her way to see her mother after a night out with friends and took the westbound I-10 exit to Carrollton. She was at a stop sign at the end of the exit ramp, waiting to turn right onto Carrollton, when she heard gunshots and felt something like a wasp sting.
Fialkoff was on the phone with her mother and said she thought she had been shot. Her mother called 911, and paramedics quickly arrived to take her to the emergency room at University Medical Center.
She was discharged after being treated for a graze wound on her left side, and she said she later learned that someone had fired four bullets into the driver’s side of her car. She found the bullet that apparently struck her in the front seat and gave it to police, who also recovered a second round that ricocheted off her, she said.
About two miles away and 10 minutes later, Oliva said he and his girlfriend were driving from Slidell to Gretna on I-10 over Tulane Avenue, by the U.S. 90B split, near the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, when he thought he heard his tire pop. An instant later, he felt something hit his right leg. He said instinctively grabbed at it and realized he was bleeding profusely.
Oliva said neither he nor his girlfriend got a good look at the car. They hurried to Ocshner Baptist Medical Center for help.
Both Fialkoff and Oliva said their physical wounds were relatively minor, but each was having trouble shaking off the emotional toll their brushes with apparently random gun violence had taken.
“We don’t have problems with anyone,” Oliva said. “It’s kind of scary.”
Fialkoff added: “To be honest, I’m probably still in shock.
Yet the two motorists — who don’t know each other and have never met — said that’s exactly what happened to them minutes apart on Friday night when they were driving in separate cars within two miles of Interstate 10 in New Orleans. A stranger pulled up next to their respective cars, aimed a gun and squeezed the trigger more than once.
Fialkoff, 33, was grazed on her left side, near her hip. Oliva, 21, was wounded in his left leg.
The day before each was wounded, yet another motorist, a 37-year-old woman, was shot on I-10 near where Fialkoff was struck, also by someone in a passing vehicle.
Fialkoff and Oliva said police have led them to think their attacks are related to other reported incidents — meaning that, in all likelihood, each was picked at random by the same person or people. Police wouldn’t comment on the accounts by Oliva and Fialkoff other than to issue a statement saying, “The investigation into these incidents remain open and very active.”
Fialkoff and Oliva said they are now speaking out in hopes that increased attention on their cases helps police find whoever might be randomly firing at people on the highway.
“I’m really lucky that I wasn’t more gravely injured, so while I’m extremely grateful for that, I also know that the next person might not be so lucky,” Fialkoff said. “So for me that highlights the urgency of catching whoever did this.”
Oliva was in the car with his girlfriend when he was shot. He said the encounter has badly rattled both him and her.
“My girlfriend … has been having nightmares over what happened for three nights now,” Oliva said.
While gun violence has plagued New Orleans for years, it is rare for people to get shot at random. Most shooting victims are targeted by someone they know and with whom they are at odds. When someone is shot by a stranger, it is usually during a robbery, an argument that erupted during a chance encounter or because of stray gunfire meant for someone else.
But the New Orleans area experienced a high-profile, troubling exception just last year. Sean Barrette, 24, of Metairie, was charged with indiscriminately shooting at drivers and passengers of vehicles during a two-week spree in June 2019, killing four people while taking aim at but missing three others. Barrette’s attorney has argued that the accused gunman is severely mentally ill.
New Orleans police have stopped well short of linking the shootings of Oliva, Fialkoff and the third unidentified motorist this month. But sources with knowledge of the investigation conceded that police brass had taken note of the pattern: Three shootings on I-10, relatively close to one another and just a day apart, each with a victim who reported being fired on for no discernible reason.
The first of the shootings occurred Thursday at about 1:25 a.m. when when the 37-year-old victim was driving west on I-10 near the Tulane and Carrollton avenue interchange. Another car approached, and someone in it fired into her car, striking her. The other car fled. The woman drove herself to a hospital.
On Friday at about 9:05 p.m., Fialkoff was on her way to see her mother after a night out with friends and took the westbound I-10 exit to Carrollton. She was at a stop sign at the end of the exit ramp, waiting to turn right onto Carrollton, when she heard gunshots and felt something like a wasp sting.
Fialkoff was on the phone with her mother and said she thought she had been shot. Her mother called 911, and paramedics quickly arrived to take her to the emergency room at University Medical Center.
She was discharged after being treated for a graze wound on her left side, and she said she later learned that someone had fired four bullets into the driver’s side of her car. She found the bullet that apparently struck her in the front seat and gave it to police, who also recovered a second round that ricocheted off her, she said.
About two miles away and 10 minutes later, Oliva said he and his girlfriend were driving from Slidell to Gretna on I-10 over Tulane Avenue, by the U.S. 90B split, near the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, when he thought he heard his tire pop. An instant later, he felt something hit his right leg. He said instinctively grabbed at it and realized he was bleeding profusely.
Oliva said neither he nor his girlfriend got a good look at the car. They hurried to Ocshner Baptist Medical Center for help.
Both Fialkoff and Oliva said their physical wounds were relatively minor, but each was having trouble shaking off the emotional toll their brushes with apparently random gun violence had taken.
“We don’t have problems with anyone,” Oliva said. “It’s kind of scary.”
Fialkoff added: “To be honest, I’m probably still in shock.