Days after the New Year's Eve terror attack on Bourbon Street, a deputy district attorney in New Orleans reportedly died by apparent suicide inside the offices of the chief prosecutor.
Over the weekend, Orleans Parish Assistant DA Ian Kersting, 34, was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound around 9 p.m. Saturday in the 6100 block of South White Street, according to local NBC affiliate WDSU. New Orleans-based WVUE-TV confirmed Kersting allegedly killed himself in the DA's office building located at 619 South White Street. Kersting was pronounced dead when emergency medical services arrived at the scene.
The district attorney's office has since released a statement asking the press to "respect the privacy of the individuals impacted."
"The Orleans Parish DA's Office family suffered a terrible tragedy Saturday night. Assistant District Attorney Ian Kersting was a beloved member of our office, and we send our love and deepest condolences to his family," the statement said. "It's important that we support each other right now, and we ask [that] the media respect the privacy of the individuals impacted."
In a subsequent statement, a spokesman said the DA's office is closed on Monday so that "the entire OPDA team will be addressed by grief and trauma counselors in the wake of an unexpected tragedy."
"We extend our deepest gratitude to the judges of Criminal District Court and Juvenile Court, as well as the Orleans Public Defenders, for their extraordinary compassion and humanity during this challenging time, as there will be members of our staff who will require time to cope and heal," the advisory added.
Later this week, the DA's office will resume normal operations as early as Tuesday.
Kersting was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in October 2020. As ADA, he was assigned to the office's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) unit, which works with the New Orleans Police Department to re-investigate and prosecute cold-case sex crimes through recovered DNA evidence. Kersting was known as a specialist in such sexual assault cases.
In March, Kersting was part of the prosecutorial team that secured the conviction of a child rapist. The case resulted in a guilty verdict for first-degree rape of a child under the age of 13. "The successful outcome underscores the dedication and skill of our team in pursuing justice for the most vulnerable members of our community," the DA's office lauded at the time.
In May, Kersting won another child sexual abuse case. "It was incredibly clear to us in preparing this trial that we could trust what the victim was saying," Kersting said, per a press release. "The victim consistently said it was Arias [the convicted child rapist]. It is our job to hold him accountable for his actions, to hold him accountable for what he did to an innocent child."
Kersting's death occurred just days after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a convert to Islam, drove a Ford F-150 down Bourbon Street and plowed the pickup truck through a crowd of New Year's Eve celebrants, killing 14 victims and injuring dozens of others in the ISIS-inspired attack. Federal authorities recovered an ISIS flag from the vehicle and found footage of Jabbar pledging allegiance to ISIS.
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