Sandra Gonzalez WGNO News

10:51 a.m. CDT, July 9, 2011
HARVEY—

Bullets flew in Harvey Saturday night killing two young men. Homicide detectives from the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office have made two arrests, and it's a family affair.

Nathan Denis brought out the bleach and other cleaning supplies, the morning after his nephew 24 year old Jerome Canselo was shot to death.

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“That’s my nephew’s blood. I come to clean up. That’s in front of somebody else’s house, in the neighborhood and the street. I’ve come to clean it up. I’m standing boldly, because that’s my nephew,” Denis said.

While Canselo was killed in the street, JSPSO says another man, 19 year old Willie Cooper Jr. was found lying dead in the grass between two houses in the 38-hundred block of Inwood Drive. Several hours after the double homicide, detectives arrested 18 year old Cornell Canselo, brother of murder victim Jerome, and 21 year old Shane Ruth, cousin to the Canselo brothers. Denis is uncle to all three.

“This is black on black. We got to stop and come together, take back our communities. Nobody owns these streets. You just live on these streets. This is God’s world, not ours,” Denis said.

JPSO says both Cornell Canselo and Ruth admit to their participation in the shooting deaths. The sheriff's office say the cousins were believed to be all together when they encountered Cooper, and some kind of argument erupted that ended in gunfire. According to JPSO, Cooper is thought to have killed Jerome Canselo, and Ruth and Cornell Canselo returned fire, killing Cooper.

“There’s too many of our young people who are dying on the street and it just really don’t have to happen,” said neighbor Carl Williams.

Neighbors say they expect to hear about some burglaries, cars speeding down this street, but this double homicide, it caught them by surprise.

“This is kind of unusual for us in this neighborhood to have something of this at all to happen to us,” Williams said.

While one family plans the funeral of a loved one, it will also be in court for two others.