A family bonding trip to New Orleans ended in heartbreak for Christopher Oatts Jr., a 39-year-old Black man from Altamonte Springs, Florida. Oatts, a warehouse manager at SeaWorld and a father to two young sons, was visiting the city with his siblings and cousins in June 2024. His family described him as a "very loving, helpful, genuine, peacemaker and protector."
In the early morning hours of June 22, 2024, Oatts was walking in the 600 block of Bourbon Street.
At approximately 4:07 a.m., a verbal altercation that he was not involved in escalated into gunfire. Surveillance footage showed that after a man in one group started a fight with another man on the street, a woman in the group opened fire into the crowded area. Oatts, an innocent bystander, was struck in the head by a stray bullet. He was rushed to a local hospital, where he died from his injury.
An intensive investigation, led by the New Orleans Police Department in collaboration with state and federal partners, quickly identified two suspects. Using surveillance video, investigators tracked a 2016 Honda Civic from the scene to Columbia, Mississippi. There, authorities arrested 22-year-old Mia Lindsey and 26-year-old Mariah Campbell. The women were taken into custody at the Marion County Correctional Facility to await extradition to New Orleans.
Lindsey was charged with second-degree murder, and Campbell was charged with accessory after the fact to second-degree murder. At trial, prosecutors presented surveillance footage that identified Lindsey as the person who fired the fatal shots.
In May 2026, an Orleans Parish jury found Mia Lindsey guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter; she was found not guilty of obstruction of justice. After hearing testimony from Oatts's father and one of his sons, District Judge Nandi Campbell sentenced Lindsey to 28 years in prison in July 2026.
