It was just after 3 a.m. on Wednesday, and while much of the country had already gone to bed after toasting the new year, the party was still going — as it usually does — on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Then came the sound of a white pickup truck, accelerating. In an instant, the city’s best-known, most popular public space was transformed into a scene of death and terror.
“We heard him punch the gas and then the impact and then the screams,’’ said Kimberly Stricklin, of Mobile, Ala., who watched with her husband as the truck careened onto Bourbon Street and slammed into the crowd. “It just took a moment to register, it was just so frightening — it was like something out of a horror movie.’’
Stricklin said she was haunted by the memory of the sounds one victim had made. “I can’t get over that girl’s screams,’’ she said.
Described by federal authorities as a deliberate act of terror, the attack killed at least 15 people, wounded about three dozen others, and left New Orleans, a city of 364,000, on edge, after investigators said at a news conference Wednesday that they believed that the driver did not act alone.
The driver, who was killed in a shootout with police, was identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, a US citizen and Army veteran from Texas. He had loaded his rented truck with weapons and at least one “potential’’ improvised explosive, authorities said, and an Islamic State group flag was found on the trailer hitch of his rented white Ford pickup.
President Biden, in a short address at Camp David, said the FBI told him that the driver had posted videos on social media “mere hours’’ before the attack “indicating that he was inspired’’ by the Islamic State group.
As law enforcement officers swept through the French Quarter searching out suspicious packages and other potential threats and evidence on Wednesday, authorities urged the public to send tips to aid in the investigation, and vowed to track down everyone involved in the attack.
“We have a plan, we know what to do, and we will get these people,’’ Anne Kirkpatrick, the New Orleans police superintendent, said at a news conference.
For residents watching events unfold, the day felt both frightening and surreal. Brian O’Brien, 57, a tour guide who lives a block from Bourbon Street, said he woke up on Wednesday to find a state trooper inspecting a cooler about 100 feet from his stoop. According to O’Brien, the officer said the cooler contained pipes, tape, and lots of nails, and a bomb squad arrived soon after and detonated the contents.
O’Brien recalled hearing the squad shout, “Fire in the hole!’’ while he sat, with his ears covered, at a safe distance. “I’m still in shock,’’ he said.
Two officers were injured as police exchanged gunfire with the suspect after he had crashed and exited his truck; both officers survived.
The Sugar Bowl, part of the new 12-team college football championship, had drawn tens of thousands of spectators to New Orleans and was scheduled to be played Wednesday night at the Caesars Superdome, less than a mile from Bourbon Street. It was postponed until Thursday in the wake of the attack.
The victims included Ni’Kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, of Gulfport, Miss., who was set to start nursing school this month; Reggie Hunter, 37, a warehouse manager from Baton Rouge, La., and father of two; and Tiger Bech, a standout Louisiana high school athlete who played football at Princeton.
“Love you always brother!’’ Jack Bech, Bech’s brother and a football player at Texas Christian University, wrote in a social media post about his family’s loss. “You inspired me everyday now you get to be with me in every moment.’’
The attack happened near the intersection of Bourbon Street and Canal Street, on one of the busiest blocks in New Orleans, on one of the busiest nights of the year. Witnesses said the white pickup truck had careened around the corner from Canal Street onto Bourbon Street, easily breaking through or evading whatever modest barriers stood in its way.
Security barriers in the area, designed to protect Bourbon Street pedestrians from vehicles, were being upgraded; according to a notice on the city’s website, construction work to remove old bollards and install new, stainless-steel replacements began in November, and was scheduled to continue into February, in preparation for the Super Bowl, scheduled to be played in New Orleans next month.
City officials said Wednesday that the new bollards were not operational at the time of the attack, and that the suspect drove onto the sidewalk, avoiding a police car parked in the road.
Stricklin and her husband said that the only obstacle for the accelerating pickup had been a simple police barrier of thin poles. “It was just flimsy,’’ she said.
The suspect, a Texas native, had converted to Islam, a man who had married his ex-wife said, and had acted erratically in recent months. Records showed that he had been married twice, and reported financial problems to his ex-wife’s lawyer in 2022.
Before authorities identified the driver as an American citizen and an Army veteran, some early reports suggested the vehicle had come across the border from Mexico. President-elect Donald Trump quickly asserted on social media that his condemnations of immigrants in the country without legal permission had been validated.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said federal investigators were treating the attack as an act of terrorism.
Video clips posted by witnesses on social media showed Bourbon Street emptied of crowds, who fled as the attack unfolded.
Bodies of victims lay sprawled in the street, near gutters littered with empty cups and broken strands of colorful Mardi Gras beads. Stunned bystanders looked down from second-floor balconies.
The attack, by an assailant “set on hurting as many people as he could,’’ had targeted an area where crowds can be found at any hour, said Jason Williams, the district attorney who represents New Orleans.
“New Orleans is a place that doesn’t close,’’ Williams said, adding: “There’s always people, there’s always people out.’’
The incident was the latest in a long succession of vehicle-based attacks on crowds, some dating back decades. The tactic has frequently been used by extremist organizations and radicalized individuals to kill, injure, and instill fear, employing one of the most commonplace objects in modern life.
The attack was at least the third deadly incident in which a vehicle was deliberately driven into a crowd in a little more than seven weeks, following the use of SUVs to kill five people in Germany a few days before Christmas, and at least 35 people in China in November.
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