15 dead, dozens more injured after car intentionally drives into New Orleans crowd

NBC NEWS -- A Texas man plowed a pickup truck flying an ISIS flag through New Year’s Day revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Wednesday, killing 15 and injuring more than 30 in an attack the FBI said is being investigated as an act of terrorism.

Once the driver, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen, crashed the white Ford truck around 3:15 a.m., he opened fire on responding police officers, wounding two. He died in the gunfight.

The bloody scene came as a shock to one of the most popular party streets in the country, where people celebrating the turn to 2025 with friends in bars and clubs were instead met with bodies on the asphalt. Witnesses posted graphic videos to social media and tried to describe mayhem in interviews.

“It was unbelievable,” Jimmy Cothran, who witnessed the attack from a nightclub balcony, told NBC News. “It just kept going.” 

He said he saw multiple bodies lying on the street within seconds, including many that were “horribly disfigured” — one marred by tire tracks.

Jabbar, an Army veteran, also had weapons and a potential improvised explosive device in the rented truck, the FBI said. There were other possible IEDs planted nearby in the French Quarter, two of which have been rendered safe. The FBI is working to determine the suspect’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.

Jabbar served in the Army on active duty from 2006 to 2015 and then in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, according to three U.S. defense officials. He had deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was a staff sergeant when he was honorably discharged in 2020, the officials said.

The FBI initially said the confirmed deaths were at least 10, and later updated that number to 15.

Alethea Duncan, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said the FBI believes the suspect was not acting alone. 

There is no active manhunt for other specific suspects, four senior law enforcement officials said.

The FBI was investigating whether other people were involved in placing two containers that had been feared to have possible IEDs, the officials said — but a senior law enforcement official later said those people have been ruled out as suspects.

“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference. “He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

Among those killed was Reggie Hunter, 37, a father of two, according to his cousin Shirell Jackson.

Hunter, a warehouse manager from Baton Rouge, was hit by the suspect’s truck and pronounced dead at University Medical Center, Jackson told NBC News. His injuries included a ruptured spleen, a punctured lung and internal bleeding, she said.

“He just didn’t deserve this,” said Jackson, who described her cousin as an “awesome person” and “a little-bitty guy” with a “big heart.” She also said he was extremely funny and loved his children, boys ages 11 and 1.

Another victim was identified as Tiger Bech, a 2015 graduate of St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette, Louisiana, the school said in a statement. It said Bech was a “standout” in football, lacrosse and track and field.

Army veteran identified as driver in New Orleans attack; Catholic school mourns victim

Federal investigators and law enforcement agencies in New Orleans are trying to determine whether the suspect used a long-gun rifle and whether he may have fired into the crowd while he was running people over, said three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation.

The celebratory scene descended into chaos rapidly, according to a woman who said she was going through the intersection when she witnessed the start of the attack.

“The guy in the pickup truck just punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit a pedicab passenger,” she said. “There were just bodies and the screams.”

Mayor LaToya Cantrell said New Orleans was “impacted by a terrorist attack.” President Joe Biden has been briefed on the attack, a White House official said.

The dozens of injured were being treated at local hospitals, as were the two injured officers, Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick said that it was unclear how many victims were local residents but that according to preliminary information, “it seems the majority are locals versus tourists.”

Historic Bourbon Street, a popular tourist area in the French Quarter filled with bars and restaurants, was expected to be busy on New Year’s Eve.

Questions were raised about how the driver was able to get around barriers that were meant to keep pedestrians safe.

Cothran said that from the balcony where he was perched, he did not see any protective steel barricades in the area around Bourbon Street and that he had been surprised earlier in the evening that they were not in place.

NBC News was not able to immediately confirm what barricades, if any, had been put in place in the area.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Cantrell, the mayor, said bollards were not up because they were still under construction. She said the project was nearly finished, with completion expected before New Orleans hosts the Super Bowl in February. 

Kirkpatrick said the suspect drove onto the sidewalk and around a “hard target” — which included officers, barriers and a car — to carry out the attack.

“They still got around,” Kirkpatrick said, addressing issues with bollards in the French Quarter. “The wedges that you see out there, as well, we knew that that had malfunction problems.”

“We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it,” Kirkpatrick said.

The Sugar Bowl college football game, which had been scheduled to be played Wednesday evening at the Superdome in New Orleans, was delayed until Thursday.

The game, between Georgia and Notre Dame, will be played at 3 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET). Officials said there will be additional safety measures.

Video recorded by onlookers and uploaded to social media showed a huge police presence on Bourbon and Canal streets.

Police said Tuesday that they expected the city to be busy as locals and visitors rang in the new year. New Orleans police said they would be staffed at 100% and would draft in 300 more officers to help keep the peace.

“We will be relentless, and we will do everything that it takes to render real justice,” Cantrell said.