NEW ORLEANS, LA – Yellow police tape spans for roughly three city blocks in New Orleans’ French Quarter the evening after a man drove a truck down Bourbon Street and into a crowd of people celebrating the new year.
15 people were killed and dozens more are in the hospital. The FBI is calling it a terrorist attack.
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The gruesome attack happened at 3:15 a.m. Wednesday. Bourbon Street was still bustling with people.
“Looked around and people had just started bolting. You know, every which way,” said Lance McCurley.
At that moment, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar gunned the truck down the street, plowing into dozens of people. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with New Orleans Police.
One of the people killed was 37-year-old Reggie Hunter from Baton Rouge. The father of two was run over in the attack.
“It was from the vehicle. It was all internal from the impact from the vehicle,” Hunter’s cousin, Shirell Jackson, said.
Jackson rushed to the hospital, but it was too late.
“They tried all their measurements, everything that they had to save him,” Jackson said. “To lose a loved one is already devastating. But on top behind these actions, this situation. It’s just, it’s like that punch to the gut.”
Wednesday night, Bourbon Street remains closed and the FBI is still combing the area for evidence looking for any clues as to what motivated the attack.
“This is like a puzzle. You know, we talked about the crime scene, three block, three blocks,” said David Thomas, Professor of Forensic Studies at Florida Gulf Coast University. “It’s going to take several days in order to accomplish that.”
Despite the death and destruction along New Orleans most famed street, college football fans are sticking around for the Sugar Bowl. The game was rescheduled for Thursday in the wake of the terror attack.
“We plan on getting to the game earlier tomorrow in anticipation of, you know, extra body checks,” said Georgia fan, Doug Scott.
