An alleged carjacker who killed a father about to fetch his 2-year-old son at day care in New Orleans last week has died — days after he was found in the stolen car with a gunshot wound in the head.
Victim Carl Morgan, 36, was fatally shot Sept. 30 at 5:17 p.m., allegedly by 21-year-old Raymond Wells, the New Orleans Police Department said at the time. Wells then drove off in his car, leaving the mortally wounded Morgan, a sous chef at the beloved Big Easy eatery Brennan’s, in the parking lot. Police pronounced him dead at the scene.
A short time later, Morgan’s vehicle rolled to a stop on Interstate 10 in neighboring Metaire, with an unresponsive Wells behind the wheel, the NOPD said. He had been shot in the back of the head and was in “extremely grave condition” at a hospital, NOPD Deputy Chief Nicholas Gernon said at a press conference Wednesday, adding an arrest warrant for first-degree murder awaited him if he recovered.
Wells was pronounced dead at University Medical Center at 1:06 a.m. Friday, NOPD spokesperson Karen Boudrie confirmed to local media on Sunday.
Morgan had been in a line of cars waiting to pick up children from the Abeona House Child Discovery Center day care on Sept. 30 when a man walked up and “just started unloading his gun,” witness Luke Gower told WDSU-TV. “I don’t think he even knew the person. He just aimed at the car and started shooting at it.”
A memorial blossomed in the day care’s parking lot, and at the city’s annual Fried Chicken Festival over the weekend Morgan was honored by grieving festivalgoers and colleagues. Brennan’s served up Morgan’s signature fried-chicken sandwich and dubbed it Carl’s Family Meal, a hat tip to the chef’s love for family and food. Proceeds went to Morgan’s partner, Lisa Marie Lienberger, and their son, Silas. An online funding appeal had raised $47,640 by Sunday evening.
“He loved to make people happy; he loved to teach people how to cook. He was hospitality through and through,” Brennan’s General Manager Christian Pendleton told WDSU. “He was the biggest teddy bear. He was just the happiest dad — so tickled to be a dad.”
