A man booked with murder earlier this month told police he and a woman smoked crack together before he shot her for trying to steal his money, New Orleans police wrote in records filed in Criminal District Court.
Police arrested 68-year-old Gerard Hill on April 4 after he called police, saying a woman had been shot in the Holy Cross area of the city, the documents say.
Investigators wrote in court records they went to an apartment building in the 500 block of St. Maurice Avenue at 7:26 p.m. and found the woman unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
The woman was brought to University Medical Center, where doctors pronounced her dead, police say. Officers found a revolver on a dresser in the apartment with one round spent, court records allege.
Hill said that he and the woman had been hanging out for hours and had smoked crack cocaine together. After, the woman allegedly tried to take cash from Hill, he told police. Hill said he took back his money and the woman pushed him, prompting him to "(reach) in the drawer and hit her," alluding to having shot her with a gun. Police say the victim didn't seem to be armed during the fight.
Hill tested positive in a gunshot residue test, and detectives tried to interview him further before Hill soon asked for an attorney.
Authorities booked Hill into the Orleans Parish Justice Center on one count of second-degree murder last week. Magistrate Commissioner Joyce Sallah set Hill's bail at $500,000 April 5.