The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A driver wrought carnage on New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day, killing 10 people as he rammed a pickup truck into a crowd before being shot to death by police, authorities said.
More than 30 people were injured as Wednesday’s attack turned festive Bourbon Street into macabre mayhem. Among those killed was 18-year-old Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux of Gulfport, Wednesday, January 1, 2025. Her mother, Melissa Dedeaux stated that her daughter wasn’t supposed to be in New Orleans, and that she had sneaked over for the night with her 18-year-old cousin and a friend.
Dedeaux was a 2024 Harrison Central graduate.
The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. An Islamic State group flag was found in the vehicle. The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas and said it is working to determine Jabbar’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Authorities are also looking into whether other people may have been involved.
Jabbar was killed by police after he exited the vehicle and opened fire on officers, police said. Two officers were shot and are in stable condition, police said. They were in addition to 33 people injured in the vehicle attack.
A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed. The attack happened around 3:15 a.m. in an area teeming with New Year’s revelers.
Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The FBI said a potential improvised explosive device was located in the vehicle and other potential explosive devices were also located in the French Quarter.
The area is a prime New Year’s Eve destination, and tens of thousands of college football fans were in the city for Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl playoff quarterfinal between Georgia and Notre Dame at the nearby Superdome.
University of Georgia President Jere Morehead said a student was critically injured in the attack and is receiving medical treatment.
Bourbon Street has had barriers to prevent vehicle attacks since 2017, but Wednesday’s rampage happened amid a major project to remove and replace the devices, which left the area vulnerable. Work began in November and was expected to be largely wrapped up in time for the Super Bowl in the city in February.
Hours after the attack, several coroner’s office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades.
President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Delaware, said he felt “anger and frustration” over the attack but would refrain from further comment until more is known.
“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said in a statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence, a trend that has alarmed law enforcement officials and that can be difficult to protect against.
An Islamic extremist was sentenced last year to 10 life sentences for killing eight people with a truck on a bike path in Manhattan on Halloween in 2017. Also in 2017, a self-proclaimed admirer of Adolf Hitler slammed his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and is now serving a life sentence.
Stephen Smith, Chevel Johnson and Brett Martel in New Orleans, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Alanna Durkin Richer and Zeke Miller in Washington and Darlene Superville in New Castle, Delaware, contributed to this report.
