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In Memoriam: Fallen Stars of 2024
The city of New Orleans is reeling after a tragedy on New Year’s Day.
At least 10 people have died, and more than 30 others have been injured, after a man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd on the famed Bourbon Street, according to authorities.
The incident took place around 3:15 a.m. local time on Jan. 1 and ended with the man, who the FBI identified as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, crashing his truck and exchanging gunfire with police, according to NBC News. The shootout ended in the death of the perpetrator and the injury of two officers, though both remain in stable condition, according to police.
New Orleans Superintendent of Police Anne Kirkpatrick described the act of violence as “very intentional behavior” and clarified that it was “not a DUI situation.”
"This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could," she said during a Jan. 1 press conference. "He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did."
The FBI also explained they are investigating the incident as an act of terrorism, noting in a statement to NBC News that an ISIS flag was found in the man’s vehicle and that improvised explosives were discovered, though the bureau was not sure at the time if they were viable.
Witness Jimmy Cothran, who watched the deadly New Year’s events from a nightclub balcony in the French Quarter, told NBC News that he saw multiple bodies lying on the street immediately after the truck drove through the crowd and described some of them as “horribly disfigured.”
MATTHEW HINTON/AFP via Getty Images
“It was unbelievable,” he said. “It just kept going.”
Following the events, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry called for the state to join him and his wife Sharon Landry in prayer for the victims of the deadly event.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” he wrote in a Jan. 1 post to X (formerly Twitter). “Please join Sharon and I in praying for all the victims and first responders on scene.”
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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