The joy of celebrations for the new year suddenly turned into tragedy in New Orleans (Louisiana) in the early hours of this Wednesday. At least 10 people have died and about 35 have been injured after a Ford F-150 electric pickup truck plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the heart of the city, according to authorities. intentionally occurred in an area where people gather to celebrate the new year. The city’s mayor, LaToya Cantrell, described the event as a “terrorist attack.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed that it is investigating it as “an act of terrorism” and that the perpetrator of the attack was killed by the police. He has been identified as Shamsud Din Bahar Jabbar, 42 years old, born in Texas and with American nationality, according to local media. The local website has indicated that he had an ISIS flag on the Ford F-150 truck with which he drove into the crowd, information also published by CNN.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” said the city’s police superintendent, Anne Kirpatrick, in the same appearance. “He was determined to cause the carnage and the damage he caused,” he added. Kirpatrick stressed that it was not an accident but a “very intentional” situation. The police official has assured that the author shot at the police officers from his vehicle. His shots hit two agents who are in a stable situation.
For her part, Alethea Duncan, an FBI special agent in New Orleans, explained that investigators found what appeared to be homemade explosive devices at the scene, but that they were trying to determine if they were viable. Duncan noted that it was not a “terrorist act” shortly after the mayor described it as such, causing some confusion on the matter. that the accident is being investigated as an act of terrorism
The authorities have not provided information on the whereabouts, identity or motivations of the perpetrator of the attack. At his appearance, the authorities did not admit questions and referred to a subsequent press conference. The FBI, however, after a confrontation with the agents.
The event occurred around 3:15 a.m. local time (10:15 a.m. in mainland Spain), towards the end of the New Year’s celebrations. An electric truck type pickup white (a Ford F-150 Lightning) with a Texas license plate overcame the protection barriers and It swept through the crowd at high speed on a narrow, crowded street.
After the accident, the bodies of numerous victims were scattered on the ground. They show horrifying images, with bloody corpses and numerous injured people. The truck crashed and the images show four bullet holes in its rear window. after the accident.
The city was upgrading bollards on a stretch of Bourbon Street in the area where the attack occurred. The project consisted of replacing the old bollards with steel ones that could be raised and lowered. The work was to be completed in February. The French Quarter of New Orleans, where the accident occurred, is the city’s main tourist attraction and one of the favorite places in the entire United States to spend New Year’s Eve.
“The only thing I saw was a pickup truck crashing into everyone on the left side of the Bourbon sidewalk,” Kevin Garcia, 22, said in a statement to CNN shortly after the incident. “A body flew towards me,” he said, adding that he also heard gunshots. Another witness, Whit Davis, 22, of Shreveport, Louisiana, told the same network that the incident occurred when he was leaving a nightclub on Bourbon Street. “Everyone started screaming and running to the back, and then they basically locked us in for a while and then everything calmed down, but they wouldn’t let us out. When they finally let us out, the police were motioning for us to walk and telling us to leave the area quickly. “I saw a few bodies that they couldn’t even cover and a lot of people receiving first aid,” he explained.
Dozens of emergency services vehicles were brought to the area, including police, ambulances and firefighters, who have been checking parked cars and have evacuated some hotels. Local media report that the Airbnb home where the perpetrator of the accident was believed to have been staying suffered a fire this morning. Police officers and bomb squads have moved to the scene.
“A horrible act of violence took place this morning on Bourbon Street,” “Please join us.” [mi esposa] Sharon and I in prayers for all the victims and the first responders on the scene. “I urge everyone near the scene to avoid the area,” he added.
The White House has indicated that the president, Joe Biden, has been informed of the news, has spoken with the mayor of New Orleans to offer federal help and will continue to receive information throughout the day. He has also indicated that the FBI is already on the ground supporting local security forces in the investigation. “My heart goes out to the victims and their families, who were simply trying to celebrate the holidays. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attacks against any of our nation’s communities,” Biden said in a statement.
Although the identity of the author had not been revealed, the president-elect, Donald Trump, who linked immigration and crime during his campaign, dared to suggest that he was a foreigner. “When I said that the criminals coming in are much worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that no one has seen before. Our hearts go out to all the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. “The Trump Administration will fully support the city of New Orleans as it investigates and recovers from this act of pure evil!”
Fox News fueled that idea with Eagle Pass (Texas). First he said that it had been only two days before; He later corrected himself and said that it was in November and that the perpetrator of the accident was not driving it, but by then the initial false information was already circulating at full speed on social networks and conservative media. According to ABC News, the owner of the van rented it to an individual through the car-sharing app Turo.
This Wednesday, New Orleans hosts the Sugar Bowl, a college football game, at the city’s Caesars Superdome stadium, near the area of the mass accident, which is expected to be attended by tens of thousands of people. The city will host the Super Bowl, the final of the professional American football league, on February 9.
The mass car accident in New Orleans is the deadliest recorded in the United States. On November 21, 2021, Darrell Edward Brooks, killing six people and injuring 62 others. In August 2017, neo-Nazi James A. Fields protesting a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing one person and injuring 35 others. Intentional attacks by protesters became frequent in the wave of protests and riots in the spring of 2020 that They followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police, but without ever reaching similar dimensions.
