The New Orleans Police Department on Friday released body camera footage of the shootout between three officers and the attacker who rammed his truck into pedestrians on Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day, killing 14 people.
The roughly 10 seconds of footage shows two officers with their guns drawn in front of the open driver’s side door of a white pickup truck. A voice can be heard yelling “put your hands up” before shooting erupts and officers and some pedestrians run away from the vehicle. The police department also released a slower version of the same video, as well as a still image showing what appears to be a muzzle flash from the attacker’s weapon.
It was the first time details of the shootout, including the names of the officers who killed the attacker, , were released.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick identified the officers who fired on the attacker as Sgt. Nigel Daggs and Officers Christian Beyer and Jacobie Jordan. She called them “national heroes” and said they “clearly” acted within the law and department policy during the shooting. The bodycam footage is from the camera of another officer, who does not appear to have fired his weapon.
“It’s clear the officers were well within policy,” she said at a news conference Friday morning. “So we have no concerns about that.”
Kirkpatrick said that Daggs is a 21-year police veteran. Beyer has been an officer for a year and 11 months, and Jordan for a year and nine months, she said.
A person who answered the phone at a number listed for Daggs directed a reporter to the department’s press office.
Jordan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Beyer could not be reached.
Kirkpatrick said that Jordan and a fourth officer, Joseph Rodrigue, a 10-year veteran who did not shoot his firearm, both sustained wounds to their thighs and have since been released from the hospital.
Kirkpatrick could not answer whether the officers may have been struck by friendly fire, saying that was something the FBI will investigate.
This week, Kirkpatrick announced that the department is bringing on William Bratton,and Los Angeles, to counsel the city on its security measures.
Bratton, 77, a veteran of more than 50 years in law enforcement, was brought on as a tactical expert on assessing security in the city after criticism about the security measures in place during the New Year’s celebrations.
At a news conference Thursday to formally introduce Bratton in his new position, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said, “This is moving in the right direction in terms of improving public safety measures in the city of New Orleans as we are preparing to host national events such as the Super Bowl and even Mardi Gras.”
Cantrell said New Orleans was “taking action to ensure that our city is safe for our residents, our city is safe for our visitors and for the long haul.”
Bratton said that he and his partners will be looking into “how can we identify problems that need to be addressed, new ones that arose out of that event in the area of counterterrorism. The area of terrorism threat is constantly evolving and changing.”
“The idea is a learning experience here, but that learning experience is then focused on prevention, preventing anything like that from happening again,” he said.
The circumstances of the terrorist attack are under investigation. The heavily trafficked thoroughfare of Bourbon Street did not have vehicle security barriers, , in place at the time of the attack. The barriers, which at times malfunctioned, had been in use for several years and were removed for replacement ahead of the city’s hosting of the Super Bowl in February. The city also had access to but the 700-pound steel Archer barriers it had previously used to protect crowded streets.
Cantrell and Kirkpatrick have defended the city’s response, saying there were temporary security measures, police vehicles and a large law enforcement presence throughout the French Quarter.
“This man was going to do his best, and if it hadn’t been on Bourbon, he was going to go somewhere else,” Kirkpatrick said last week.
