New Orleans: Mother of Jace Lee Scott hand-delivers demands letter to mayor’s office
New Orleans, LA – On the morning of July 20, Shanta Scott and a group of supporters showed up at city hall to deliver a letter to the mayor and request a meeting. Participants wore t-shirts reading “Justice for Jace Lee Scott” as they walked into the building.
After waiting for the second floor to open at 9 a.m., the group went upstairs to the mayor’s office. They spoke briefly with security who brought out Director of Executive Affairs Leo Maya to greet the group.
“I emailed [the mayor], we’re coming up here to find out if she got the letter. Officer Victor Gant’s son murdered my son. [Gant] has broken protocol in my son’s death investigation and I have been reaching out to her so we can talk,” said Shanta Scott, mother of Jace Scott, to Amaya. She also requested confirmation that her emails are being received by the office, after an employee told her the new mayor’s inbox had not been set up yet earlier this year.
Activists were able to confirm with Amaya that the office did receive the February 9 email. He also took the physical copy of Scott’s letter and assured the group the mayor’s office would reach out about scheduling a meeting. When asked how long this process would take, Amaya claimed he could not provide more information.
“I will bring this up the proper channels so that we can handle it in the most respectful and sensitive way possible,” Amaya told Scott.
“If we don’t hear from y’all in a week, we’ll be back. We’re going to keep it pushing,” said activist Toni Mar with the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “We want to make sure all of this information about Gant gets pushed up the chain to the mayor so she can help us get justice.”
Just before leaving, Amaya came back out and told Shanta Scott the office sent a response via email and post. The group walked out and chanted “Justice for Jace!” before leaving city hall.
Scott sent a letter to Moreno in February 2026 demanding that New Orleans Police Department officer Victor Gant Jr be investigated and fired for breaking protocol in the case of Jace Lee Scott’s murder in 2019. The killer was his own son, Andrew Gant. Instead of recusing himself from the case, Gant Jr accompanied his son in an NOPD “interrogation” by fellow friend and Homicide Detective Rob Barrere which lasted less than ten minutes. This is just the surface of favoritism and corruption in the case, which includes sloppy paperwork, hasty interviews, improper collection of evidence, and more. Since 2019, Gant Jr has been promoted to work under the mayor.