People shown running for cover after hearing several gunshots in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB/Gray News) - A video going viral on TikTok shows people running for cover after a shootout in downtown Baton Rouge this past weekend.

The video was taken by a woman in the parking lot behind City Bar early Sunday morning after the bars closed.

“Sounded like a damn war zone, it is ridiculous and we must do something about that,” said Metro Councilwoman Carolyn Coleman, District 10.

According to Baton Rouge Police, multiple shots were fired in the 200 block of Lafayette Street around 2:45 a.m., but no one was hit.

However, a few vehicles and many windows of buildings were struck by bullets.

“Young people don’t value life, a lot of them, and they don’t realize that there are people who do value that life. And so with that being said, we’ve got to make sure that we kind of beef things up,” Coleman said.

“During normal hours when people are conducting business or coming downtown for an event or anything like that, this is not something that happens. Downtown is very safe,” said Whitney Hoffman Sayal, executive director of the Downtown Development District.

City leaders want more police officers and cameras downtown to help curtail this violence.

“We need to make sure we have an increased presence I think during those times that you don’t really have a presence here but when people might be doing things that they shouldn’t be doing,” Sayal said.

“Cameras, officers and then deal with the culprit, we must send a message to them that it’s time out for this. And then when we say lives matter, yeah let’s be real about this, all lives matter, and let’s stop this foolishness,” Coleman said.

Police said they are reviewing surveillance footage from security cameras downtown in hopes of finding out who fired the shots.

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