Police: Slain owner of Gulfport jazz bistro shot, killed by his son - SunHerald

ADVOCATE PHOTOS Herbert Meyers Jr., left, was found dead in his home last week. His son, Herbert Meyers III, right, was charged with his murder on Friday

As Herbert Meyers III told it, he had just returned to his father’s house near the lakefront on Sunday after running a quick errand when he discovered his dad, Herbert Meyers Jr., had been killed in a home invasion.

But authorities apparently do not believe Meyers III’s story. Instead, they arrested the 35-year-old on Friday in his father’s murder.

New Orleans police say they found the elder Meyers, 54, dead from multiple gunshot wounds about 10:50 p.m. on Sunday at his home in the 2400 block of Oriole Street. His son had called them out, claiming he had discovered his father’s corpse amid a burglary in progress after returning home from an errand.

In an interview with The New Orleans Advocate on Monday, Meyers III said he had been with his father but left him alone to go buy supplies for a jazz club the two owned in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Read more at theneworleansadvocate.com

Meyers III said he pulled up to the store but changed his mind about going in because he’s “wishy-washy,” so he came back, realized his father had been gunned down and heard frantic whispers nearby.

He said that he ran to his car, grabbed an AK-47 he kept there because he was “a gun enthusiast” and went back into the home. When he entered the living room, Meyers III said, he opened fire on two men, at least one of whom he said was also wielding an AK-47.

Meyers III claimed he recognized one of the men as someone his father had done business with in a separate construction job, and he said they slipped out a back door. Meyers III also described his father’s bedroom as ransacked, with drawers opened and his safe broken into.

At a news conference on Monday, Sgt. Nicholas Gernon, the head of the New Orleans Police Department’s Homicide Section, would not confirm whether more than one gun had been fired in the home on Sunday night. He said ballistics testing in the case was pending.