Christopher Oatts Jr. was 39 when he was struck and killed by a stray bullet while visiting New Orleans with siblings and cousins on a family trip in June 2024. A warehouse manager at SeaWorld and father of two young sons from Altamonte Springs, Florida, his family described him as very loving, helpful, genuine, a peacemaker and a protector.

Witnesses and surveillance show that in the early morning hours of June 22, 2024, Oatts was walking in the 600 block of Bourbon Street when a verbal altercation between others escalated into gunfire. Surveillance footage reportedly captured a woman in one group opening fire into the crowded area; Oatts was hit in the head and later died at a local hospital.

Investigators tracked a vehicle from the scene to Columbia, Mississippi, and two people were taken into custody there. One was charged with second-degree murder and another with accessory after the fact to second-degree murder. What details about motive or the events leading up to the shooting remain unclear; anyone who saw that area of Bourbon Street the morning of June 22, 2024, or has relevant information is asked to come forward.