Joseph Fields, 28, was a Black man from New Orleans, Louisiana. On April 17, 2017, his life ended in New Orleans East along Chef Menteur Highway, where police were called to an apartment complex courtyard in the 6000 block after reports of a man down. Officers arrived to find him unresponsive, face down on the sidewalk, with what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
In the hours that followed, investigators began the slow work that always comes after the violence: gathering evidence, trying to piece together what happened in the courtyard and why, and searching for the person responsible. At the time, authorities said the coroner would determine the official cause of death and release the victim’s name after the autopsy and family notification, while detectives pursued leads and appealed for information.
Years later, the case surfaced again in an official announcement of progress. The New Orleans Police Department reported that homicide detectives obtained an arrest warrant dated April 6, 2022, for Ray Farria in connection with the April 17, 2017 homicide in the 6000 block of Chef Menteur Highway. The department said the warrant was for a second-degree murder charge, and that Farria was already in the custody of the Louisiana Department of Corrections at the time, serving a sentence related to a 2019 manslaughter conviction out of Jefferson Parish.
Public incident-tracking sources also identify Farria as the suspect connected to Joseph Fields’ death and indicate he was arrested, aligning with the later warrant announcement that named him as the person sought for the 2017 killing.
