Dallas sniper attack recalls 1973 slayings in New Orleans

Last week's sniper attack in Dallas was gloomily reminiscent of a 1973 shooting spree in downtown New Orleans that shattered the peaceful urban landscape and went on for 11 hours, until police shot and killed Mark Essex from a helicopter hovering over a hotel.

The Dallas deaths revived disturbing memories for the police, city employees and reporters who lived through the New Orleans attack, which unfolded under many of the same circumstances as the Texas shootings.

The violence resumed on Jan. 7 when Essex shot and wounded a white store owner, stole a car and led police on a chase that ended at the Howard Johnson's, where he turned into the parking garage and ran into the main building.

Then-Mayor Moon Landrieu said in a 1983 AP interview that the shootings occurred at a time of racial and political unrest and authorities feared the violence was part of an organized revolutionary attack.

In 1973, Louisiana and other Southern states had been rocked by more than a decade of political and social turmoil that accompanied the civil rights movement.

Landrieu, in his first term when Essex attacked, had gained the trust of many black voters and the enmity of some whites by bringing African-American appointees into city government.

"When those officers got shot, any kind of racial politics I might have indulged in was put on the back burner," Williams said.

Because those were my comrades.