At least 15 people were killed and 35 injured when a pickup truck was driven into a crowd on Bourbon Street early Jan. 1, 2025. The photo shows the truck where it came to rest near the intersection of Conti Street. (Photo by Theron Sapp/Courtesy WVUE-TV)
This story first appeared on Louisiana Illuminator and has been updated.
NEW ORLEANS — The death toll from a suspected terror attack on Bourbon Street was updated to 15 Wednesday afternoon after a pickup truck tore through Bourbon Street where crowds were celebrating the arrival of the New Year in the early hours of the day.
Another 35 people were injured, some of them critically, according to authorities.
The driver of the truck, whom the FBI identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas, was killed after a shootout with police in which two officers were wounded, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
The NOPD officers who were shot were taken to University Medical Center and were in stable condition, according to the police chief. She said the same facility is also treating 26 of the injured people, and the remainder have been taken to other local hospitals.
Weapons and a “potential IED,” or improvised explosive device, were founding inside the truck, and an Islamic State flag was placed atop a pole on the truck’s trailer hitch, according to the FBI.
Video shows the moment the FBI says Shamsud Din Jabbar raced onto a packed Bourbon Street from Canal Street in a pickup truck with Texas plates and an ISIS flag. https://t.co/P0iWiTX30Z pic.twitter.com/hmeB1tUjpc
— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) January 1, 2025
Video shows the moment the FBI says Shamsud Din Jabbar raced onto a packed Bourbon Street from Canal Street in a pickup truck with Texas plates and an ISIS flag. https://t.co/P0iWiTX30Z pic.twitter.com/hmeB1tUjpc
— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) January 1, 2025
At around 3:15 a.m., the FBI said Jabbar steered what’s believed to be a rental truck around a police barricade at Canal Street meant to keep vehicles off of Bourbon Street and sped into a crowd. The truck sped through nearly three blocks before colliding with a lift vehicle near Conti Street.
“He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” Kirkpatrick said.
Alethea Duncan, the FBI’s assistant special agent in charge for the New Orleans district, said it is believed Jabbar did not act alone, and agents are looking into possible accomplices.
The Associated Press is reporting that FBI investigators have reviewed surveillance video that showed three men and a woman placing an explosive device.
A small fire at a house in the St. Roch neighborhood, about 2 miles away from the French Quarter, is being investigated in connection with the terror attack, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told WDSU-TV.
Some victims identified
One of the people killed has been identified as 18-year-old Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux of Gulfport, Mississippi, The Times-Picayune reported. She had accompanied her cousin and friend to the French Quarter for New Year’s Eve, her mother said.
KLFY-TV in Lafayette has confirmed that Tiger Bech, 28, also died in the terror attack. Bech is a graduate of St. Thomas More Catholic High School who played football at Princeton University. His brother Jack, who played for LSU before transferring to Texas Tech, confirmed his death in an X post.
Reggie Hunter, 37, of Baton Rouge was also among the fatalities, WAFB-TV reported. The father of three made a last-minute decision to travel to the French Quarter with his cousin, who was also struck by the truck and injured.
Protective bollards weren’t deployed
Steel bollards that rise from the street were installed along and near Bourbon Street in 2017 to protect pedestrians, but they were not deployed and are in the process of being replaced according to the city’s Department of Public Works website.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the bollards were being replaced in advance of the Super Bowl, which New Orleans will host Feb. 9. Kirkpatrick said police vehicles were in place at the bollard sites, but Jabbar was able to drive on the sidewalk around those barriers.
The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. Bomb squad personnel were seen entering the French Quarter, where the FBI said other “potential” explosive devices were located. Several small booms were heard blocks away, which City Council members said were controlled detonations to clear possible IEDs.
An eight-block stretch of Bourbon Street remains closed to traffic, and some hotels in the French Quarter have been evacuated as a precautionary measure. The public is being asked to avoid a large portion of the historic neighborhood, which typically sees crowds larger than typical weekends for New Year’s Eve.
Hospitality and service industry employees reporting for work Wednesday morning were being turned away from cordoned-off areas.
New Orleans is hosting fans of the University of Georgia and Notre Dame for the Sugar Bowl. The college football playoff quarterfinal was scheduled for 7:45 p.m. Wednesday night at the Superdome, but the game has been postponed for 24 hours, Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said.
Landry said he planned to attend the Sugar Bowl, emphasizing the event will be held safely, and he will order flags at state buildings flown at half staff in memory of the lives lost Wednesday morning.
University of Georgia President Jere Morehead confirmed on social media that a student. from the school “was critically injured in the attack and is receiving medical treatment.”
Multiple news sources reported the Superdome was locked down Wednesday morning for a security sweep. The venue will also host Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon in New Orleans, Gov. Jeff Landry said he has signed an executive order to declare an emergency in order to expedite state resources to New Orleans to assist local and federal investigators. A military police company of 100 soldiers from the Louisiana National Guard is also being assigned to New Orleans, the governor said.
President-elect Donald Trump called the incident “pure evil” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The NOPD is asking anyone trying to connect with family who they believe were in the area to call 311, and not 911, for more information.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.