Mark Essex Hotel Sniper Siege

In January 1973 in New Orleans, Louisiana, spree killer Mark Essex, a 23-year-old former U.S. Navy serviceman, launched a series of attacks against the New Orleans Police Department. Essex had already killed a police officer and wounded others days earlier before barricading himself inside the Downtown Howard Johnson’s Hotel, where he sniped at officers, set traps, and used tactical distractions from fortified positions. The gun battle escalated so severely that police requested assistance from the U.S. Marine Corps, which loaned a helicopter so officers could counterattack the gunman on the hotel roof. After an intense firefight, police killed him.

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