NEW ORLEANS — A law enforcement officer was shot Friday night at a high school basketball game in New Orleans. The victim is not an officer with the NOPD, but is with an outside agency, the department says.

According to sources, the shooting happened at about 6:15 at a basketball game on the campus of George Washington Carver. About one hour later, the NOPD announced that the officer died from his injuries.

“An individual attempted to enter the game and had an altercation with one of the staff members,” said NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson, who could not divulge the identity of the slain Tulane police officer and reserve Constable officer with the Second City Court in Algiers. “The officer heard the disturbance and attempted to intervene.

“As a result of intervening and attempting to escort this individual out of the school, this individual pulled his weapon out and fired a shot that struck the officer in his chest.”

The NOPD made an appeal for people to avoid driving on Interstate-10 westbound while an ambulance transports the injured officer to the hospital.

The shooting happened in the foyer of the building, on the other side of doors that lead to the gymnasium. It’s the same area where tickets were taking and temperatures were checked prior to the game.

After the shooting, the gym was placed on lockdown, preventing people from entering or leaving. The school’s parking lot is also on lockdown.

According to radio communications, paramedics were working on the injured officer in the back of the ambulance which was going to University Medical Center. Also according to radio traffic, a suspect was taken into custody.

“We do have an individual detained at this time, who we do believe is responsible for this act,” said Ferguson. “Again, this is a very fluid situation. Our homicide division will be the lead in this investigation while our force investigation team will assist in this process.”

WGNO has multiple crews at the scene. We will update this story as more information is available. We will also have a live report on WGNO News at 10.