"Everybody was petrified. They hit the ground, the floats stopped, everybody on the floats ducked," Labat said.
Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims - three men ages 50, 33, and 20, two young women ages 20 and 17, and a 15-year-old boy - were taken to area hospitals. The conditions of all the victims were not immediately available, but Young said the 20-month-old baby was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt.
Dr. Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon who was near the shooting site, ran over to tend to one man who he said had been shot in the abdomen. "He kept asking me, 'Was I shot? Was I shot?' "
Paramedics arrived and took over for the Air Force reservist. "I'm off to Afghanistan this summer. This is more dangerous than Afghanistan," Parry said.
Two men, 19-year-old Mark Brooks and 18-year-old Louis Lazone, both of New Orleans, were each booked on seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Three weapons believed used in the shooting were recovered, Young said.
It was not clear whether the shooters were aiming for the victims or each other.
The violence along the oak-lined Uptown streetcar line marred what had been a generally peaceful day of revelry in which hundreds of thousands of people partied in the streets on the final day of Carnival.
Another shooting was reported on Friday night after an argument, but otherwise, the event was generally problem-free.
Beau Beals, 45, said he was outside a house party on St. Charles Avenue when the shooting erupted. He said he and other revelers tossed children over a metal fence to get them to safety, but others kept waiting for beads being tossed from the floats as if nothing had happened.
"They had an ambulance out here picking the guy up off the street and people didn't stop vying for throws," Beals said.
