NEW ORLEANS – Today, District Attorney Jason Williams, New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Chief Shaun Ferguson, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm (ATF) Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Carroll, along with a host of other law enforcement leaders including Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Alex Calenda and Chief of Trials Matthew Derbes, announced the indictment and subsequent arrest of defendant Tyrone Steele. Steele was indicted on four counts of First Degree Murder, one count of Aggravated Burglary and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Burglary.

“Now, that the courts have resumed jury trials, the public is now finally seeing the results of strong partnership between law enforcement and prosecutors to build strong cases based in evidence to secure justice for victims and the community. Since we have returned to court, the DA’s Office has secured convictions in every single case that has gone to trial. We have secured guilty pleas in over 200 cases since the start of the year and we have secured guilty pleas in over 1700 cases across 3500 charges last year. Since April 2021, we have been able to accept 62% of felony cases. In each of those instances, it would not have been possible without the hard work of the officers, detectives and investigators that work for the NOPD, and other law enforcement, providing our office with the right information and evidence to move forward in cases,” said District Attorney Williams. “This strong, necessary partnership is the reason we are standing here today announcing the indictment and arrest of one of the most violent criminals in New Orleans – Tyrone Steele. Through this indictment and arrest, I hope that the people of New Orleans understand that the criminal legal system hears you and we are surging back against crime with everything we have. I am grateful for hard, smart work of the DA’s Office, NOPD, ATF and FBI on this case; we have been able to get a dangerous criminal off the street.”

NOPD Chief Shaun Ferguson said, “The indictment and arrest or Tyrone Steele is another excellent example of how the NOPD, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, and our state and federal partners are working in tight coordination through our enhanced VCAIT initiative to help make this city a safer place to live and visit. The hard-working men and women of our department put a strong case together and the District Attorney wasted no time indicting a very dangerous individual based on evidence gathered through their efforts. We look forward to more success through this ongoing collaborative effort.”

In spite of challenging weather, due to the recent tornado, which led to outages across the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office (OPDA), ADA Calenda managed to present a strong case, based around compelling evidence and information gathered by the NOPD, to secure the indictment of Steele. Following the indictment, NOPD Special Operations Division, with the support of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team apprehended the defendant. According to reports, Steele was arrested for the murder of a victim in New Orleans East as well as the murder of three additional victims in Gentilly; all crimes took place in March 2022.

In February 2022, OPDA and NOPD rolled out a shared four point plan, focused around tighter collaboration, to combat the crime surge in New Orleans. Steele’s indictment and arrest are proof positive of the plan in action.

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