Empty cups litter the yard. Deflated orange and green balloons dangle from a gate. A banner celebrating the graduation of a young man named JeShan hangs nearby. 
 
 A graduation party here in Gentilly turned violent at 11:20 p.m. Friday, when police say a 15-year-old was fatally shot and five others were injured. Gunfire exploded after an argument, police said, with one person believed to be the gunman. 
 
 JeShan Vail, 17, who graduated Thursday from George Washington Carver Senior High School, said the party was for him. He said he was standing beside his younger brother, Tremaine Robinson, 15, when Tremaine was fatally shot. 
 
 "He was an innocent bystander," Vail said. "He don't even sell drugs or in a gang. None of that. He's just a normal little kid." 
 
 John Gagliano, chief investigator for the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office, confirmed that Tremaine Robinson, 15, of Spring, Texas, died at Interim LSU Hospital after being shot in the head. 
 
 Vail said his brother was born in New Orleans, but left after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said part of the reason he hasn't moved back from the Houston area is that Tremaine's mother is wary of the crime here. Tremaine, he said, enjoyed basketball and fashion and was about to enter his junior year of high school. 
 
 A few feet away from where Vail spoke, a "Thou Shalt Not Kill" sign was stuck in the grass. 
 
 The scene at the home in the 6200 block of Eads Street was somber Saturday. By noon, people had emerged from the home to begin cleaning up what was left from the party: trays and bottles, cans and cups and food. 
 
 Those injured in the gunfire included three women ages 19 to 30 and two men ages 22 to 25, police said. The 19-year-old is undergoing surgery, according to police. The others sustained non-life-threatening injuries. 
 
 Around 8 a.m. Saturday morning, a car containing five young college students from Lafayette slowed down in front of the house, located off of Robert E. Lee Boulevard. The driver, a 19-year-old who declined to give her name, said she was looking for their purses, which they'd left behind in all the chaos the night before. 
 
 She said she'd heard about the party on social media. The organizers charged $5 for admission and issued armbands to guests, she said. 
 
 Though she said she was cautious at first, she and her friends described feeling relieved when they saw young children and what she believed were adult family members at the event. 
 
 "We were just having fun and the next thing you know everyone was running under the tables," said the driver, who said she's a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. "We want to go back to Lafayette because there are not these problems." 
 
 A tweet advertising the party on Twitter indicated free alcohol would be provided all night and that the price of admission would rise to $10 after 11 p.m. 
 
 Vail said the money was collected to offset the costs of the food and drinks. He estimated 250 to 300 people attended. He said family members including Tremaine had gathered in town not only to celebrate his graduation, but also to honor an aunt who recently died. 
 
 "It was mostly friends," he said of the Friday party. "So whoever did what they did, we didn't know them." 
 
 Neighbors said this was the second year the residents of the house had held such a party. 
 
 One neighbor said she heard the shots and peeked out of her door and saw who she thought was the gunman. She said she quickly closed the door. Later, she found a bullet had pierced the trunk of her car. 
 
 The woman described the teenagers who live at the house where the party was held as friendly and well-mannered, frequently engaging her in conversation. "They are really nice people," she said. 
 
 The 15-year-old is the second-youngest homicide victim of the year so far in New Orleans. 
 
 Detectives are investigating the incident to determine a motive and the identity of the suspect in the case. Detective Charles Hoffacker is the lead detective. 
 
 Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 1.877.903.7863 or 504.822.1111. A cash reward of up to $2,500 is available for information leading to an arrest. 
 
 Correction: An earlier version of this story, using information provided by police and coroner's office officials, incorrectly reported that there were seven additional shooting victims instead of five, and that the teen slain was named Tremaine Robertson instead of Tremaine Robinson. 
 
 Photojournalist Chris Granger contributed to this report. Rebecca Catalanello can be reached at rcatalanello@nola.com or 504.717.7701. ||||| A New Orleans police detective is being investigated after he allegedly wrote a message in a murder victim's blood. 
 
 New Orleans police confirmed that homicide detective Charles Hoffacker was placed on desk duty last Wednesday after he allegedly doodled with a victim's blood once it had coagulated on the street at a crime scene. 
 
 A complaint states that he tampered with the scene, although, according to WWL-TV, his attorney said the case has been blown out of proportion: 
 
 He said the crime scene was never compromised, and the victim had long been removed from the scene when the alleged tampering took place. He conceded that Hoffacker may have used poor judgment, but said the detective never intended any harm and did not violate any departmental rules. 
 
 Hoffacker is also an artist. According to his website, he "[uses] art to bring the violence I experience on a daily basis to the forefront of the more cultivated art world." 
 
 But as WWL-TV reports, his past projects didn't allegedly involve potential evidence from a crime scene. 
 
 The attorney said his client was stressed after working two double shifts over Memorial Day weekend. Hoffacker was the lead detective on at least one murder case that weekend, in which a 15-year-old died in a shooting at a graduation party. It is not clear if that was the scene where he allegedly wrote the message in blood. 
 
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 ||||| NOPD detective under investigation for writing message in murder victim's blood 
 
 Mike Perlstein / Eyewitness News 
 
 Email: mperlstein@wwltv.com | Twitter: @mikeperlstein 
 
 NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans homicide detective Charles Hoffacker has channeled many of his gritty street experiences as a cop into a second career as a cutting edge artist. 
 
 He once used bullet casings to craft a grim portrait of convicted killer and accused drug kingpin Telly Hankton. An earlier painting depicted an assault rifle draped in Mardi Gras beads. 
 
 But Hoffacker is now the subject of an internal investigation in what might be a case of taking his artistic sensibilities too far. 
 
 Hoffacker is the subject of a formal complaint that he wrote a message in the blood of a murder victim at a crime scene last week. 
 
 The blood had apparently coagulated on the street where the victim was found, multiple sources said. 
 
 The New Orleans Police Department confirmed that Hoffacker was decommissioned last Wednesday over the incident and placed on desk duty. The reassignment means Hoffacker can’t wear a uniform or carry a gun and is not allowed to work on the street. 
 
 Hoffacker's attorney, Eric Hessler of the Police Association of New Orleans, said the case has been blown out of proportion. 
 
 He said the crime scene was never compromised, and the victim had long been removed from the scene when the alleged tampering took place. He conceded that Hoffacker may have used poor judgment, but said the detective never intended any harm and did not violate any departmental rules. 
 
 Stress may have been a contributing factor, Hessler said. 
 
 He said the complaint came after Hoffacker had worked two double shifts during the bloody Memorial Day weekend that saw four people killed and another 15 wounded in an extreme spike of violence, even by New Orleans standards. 
 
 “This was an isolated incident that happened during a very, very difficult time for New Orleans and for this officer also,” Hessler said. “And I’m hoping that the NOPD sees it that way and treats it that way.” 
 
 Andy Antippas, owner of Barrister’s Gallery on St. Claude Avenue, has exhibited Hoffacker’s work for nearly 10 years. He said whatever happened at the crime scene was likely done out of Hoffacker’s anger and frustration over the city’s violence. 
 
 “If there were 50 more like him, our police force would be a lot stronger,” he said. “Whatever it is he’s been accused of, someone has misconstrued something.” 
 
 Antippas said Hoffacker is known for pouring the dark emotions of his police work into his artwork. 
 
 “On at least two occasions, he described crime scenes to me with such pathos, such personal anguish, that I remember distinctly on one of those times tears coming out of his eyes,” he said. 
 
 In a statement by Hoffacker on his website under his gallery name, Von Hoffacker, he explained how his experiences as a detective to influence his artistic vision. 
 
 “I use art to bring the violence I experience on a daily basis to the forefront of the more cultivated art world,” he wrote. “Art to ignite reflection and artistic creation to spur a dialogue of resolution is the underlying purpose of pursuing this career. I find solace in the tradition of painting to both memorialize and reason my subject matter.” 
 
 Hoffacker’s work has been shown locally at Barrister’s, Space Gallery, Second Story Gallery and the Contemporary Arts Center. Originally from New Mexico, Hoffacker received formal art training at Delgado Community College, joining the NOPD at a time when he was gaining local attention as a painter. 
 
 He has been the subject of several media stories focusing on his non-traditional mix of professions, including a featured piece on National Public Radio. 
 
 Antippas said Hoffacker approaches both jobs with the same sense of moral purpose. He recalled one example of Hoffacker’s art in which he made a charcoal portrait of a murder victim whose killing was unsolved. 
 
 Hoffacker donated the piece to the family of the victim to be sold at auction to raise money for the family and increase the Crimestoppers reward. 
 
 According to departmental rules, the NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau has 14 days to determine whether to classify the investigation as criminal or administrative.
– Crime-solver by day, offbeat artist by night? That's New Orleans homicide detective Charles Hoffacker, who last week scrawled a message at a murder scene—in the victim's blood, WWLTV reports. The department has decommissioned him (no uni, no gun, no street jobs) and launched an internal investigation, but Hoffacker's attorney is taking a stand. He says Hoffacker wrote the message long after the victim was removed, and was likely stressed out over a weekend of Memorial Day violence that saw four killed and 15 injured (Hoffacker was lead detective at the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old girl, the Times-Picayune reports, but no word on whether that's the crime scene in question, notes Huffington Post). Andy Antippas, owner of Barrister's Gallery, defended the blood-scrawl as Hoffacker's way of coping: "On at least two occasions, he described crime scenes to me with such pathos, such personal anguish, that I remember distinctly on one of those times tears coming out of his eyes." The art Hoffacker has shown at Barrister's was political satire, though Hoffacker says he has no political bent and just makes art to decompress, the Times-Picayune reports. In a profession that tends to leave people depressed, he says, art "has helped me be more healthy."