‘His mother asked: Where is my baby? ‘That broke me,’ says survivor of deadly New Orleans attack

The U.S. Army veteran behind the wheel jumped the curb, maneuvered around flimsy barriers and wreaked havoc before crashing and then shooting away.

Identified as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, shot and killed by police who were pursuing the vehicle on foot. The FBI does not believe he acted alone; Investigators are looking into a “wide range” of possible accomplices.

There is no Fortress America for those who have a mission of malice and chaos, despite all the measures that have been taken to secure and strengthen public spaces. There were more than 300 police officers patrolling the French Quarter at the time, but the suspect found a way to get onto a street where cars are not allowed except for late-night deliveries. In the midst of the celebrations that, at 3:15 a.m., had not yet completely subsided. Bourbon Avenue was still packed with revelers, tourists and children. The Large Straightforward never quite sleeps, and certainly not in the joyous hours after New Year’s Eve.

It could have been worse, much worse. Investigators found guns and pipe bombs (improvised explosive devices) hidden inside coolers in the French Quarter, according to a Louisiana State Police bulletin obtained by The Related Press. Remote detonation devices were connected and a corresponding remote control was discovered inside the suspect’s truck.

According to multiple reports, the FBI also recovered surveillance video showing three men and a woman placing improvised explosive devices inside the truck. Additionally, police confiscated written materials on the inside of the vehicle that strongly suggested inspiration from and adherence to Islamic terrorist organizations. A pistol and an AR-type rifle were also recovered from the truck.

The New York Times reported that a photograph had circulated showing a bearded, camouflage-clad Jabbar standing next to the truck after he was killed in the shootout with police.

A look at the suspect’s social media footprint includes video posts in which he complained about being deeply in debt. He had previously been sued by an ex-wife for failing to provide ordered financial support. There are also images from his time as a military technology specialist.

All of this unfolded before New Orleans hosted what would have been a major sporting event on New Year’s Day: the Sugar Bowl game between Georgia and Notre Dame, which has been rescheduled for Thursday. In a city that, on Monday, was going to begin organizing Mardi Gras parades and where the Tremendous Bowl will be held next month.

Bourbon Avenue is full of nightclubs, bars and hotels, many of them with terraces and balconies. Citizen videos have been flooding social media, capturing the immediate aftermath of the chaos, the broken victims, the dead and the dying. A clip shows the moments just before the attack: a truck with a large pole tied to the back, turning from Canal Avenue, the main artery of downtown New Orleans, onto festive Bourbon Avenue, passing a police cruiser and accelerating rapidly.

Dan McFee had just left a resort near that intersection when he heard screeching tires. He looked around and saw a white van turn onto Bourbon Avenue, heading directly toward him and a friend.

“I basically put my arms around her and threw us to the right of the vehicle,” he told ABC Information. “I don’t remember exactly if it hit me or some debris, but we went flying through the air and fell to the sidewalk. The vehicle hit a gentleman I was standing next to. “While we were on the ground, it appeared he was breathing…the woman behind him did not appear to be breathing and the vehicle continued down the road.”

Moments later, the explosion of a gunshot.

However, from all the information that emerged on Wednesday, Jabbar (honorably discharged from the military, Afghanistan veteran, US citizen, believed to have been living in Texas) appears to have been inspired by sudden Islamist fanaticism based on anxieties. personal family members. CNN, citing anonymous sources, reported that Jabbar made a video while driving from Texas to Louisiana in which he discussed his bitter divorce, accumulating debt; that he had considered gathering his family under the pretext of celebrating and then killing them all. But then he had dreamed of ISIS, had apparently become their slave, and changed his plans.

Which brought him to New Orleans. No one knows yet why New Orleans.

Jimmy Cothran, who lives in New Orleans, witnessed the manic rampage.

He was walking down Bourbon Avenue with a friend when he heard a commotion up ahead near Canal Avenue. They thought someone was shooting, a common sound in New Orleans, so they went into a nightclub for safety.

“Two minutes later, four or five girls ran in, pushed back security and hid under the tables,” Cothran told CNN.

He and his friend ran to the balcony above, stunned by what they saw happening below. “There were unimaginable casualties, bodies scattered everywhere, something you can’t stop seeing and that you will never forget.

“Right at our feet was definitely a mother, twisted, obviously deceased. A man, crushed, who had tire tracks on his back. “Once they turned it in, it had fingerprints on the front.”

He recognized a young woman he had seen earlier dancing happily in the street. “It was flat as a pillow.”

Another child, alive “but dying.”

They looked everywhere: “Body, body, body, body, body.”

They counted eight. “Two with injuries that I would say seem unsurvivable. “Four were clearly and graphically deceased.”

In fact, he timed the passing of the suspect vehicle, at about 70 miles per hour. “One minute, two minutes tops, he was out of sight. The only thing that stopped him was when he crashed.”

Cothran, a certified emergency medical technician, wanted to help the victims, but security officers and later police prevented him from leaving the club for an hour and a half.

Zion Parson said NOLA.com that he and two friends were leaving a Bourbon Avenue restaurant when he heard a “commotion” and “banging.” Turning around, he saw a vehicle speeding down the sidewalk toward them. She avoided the truck, but one of her friends, 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux, was hit.

“I scream his name, turn his head and his leg is twisted and contorted over and around his back. And there was only blood.” The 18-year-old then heard gunshots.

“As you walk down the street, you can look and see bodies, just bodies of people, just broken, bleeding bones. “Everyone shouting and shouting.”

He watched as authorities covered his dead friend with a tarp. He called his family to tell them what happened.

“I hadn’t had time to cry until I called his mother and she asked me, ‘Where is my baby?’ “That broke me.”

Many have wondered why the police had not put up solid steel bollards before the New Year festivities. In fact, the city has had barriers to prevent vehicle attacks since 2017, but Wednesday’s calamity occurred during an infrastructure upgrade that has been underway since November in preparation for the Tremendous Bowl. But replacements had not yet been installed on that section of Bourbon Avenue. It is pure speculation that they would have stopped the attack.

“We had barriers there, we had officers there,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick insisted, at a chaotic news conference. The terrorist surrounded them. “Indeed we had a plan, but the terrorist defeated it.

“This man was trying to run over as many people as he could.”

New Orleans is a remarkably resilient city. It recovered from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita consecutively. Its police department has a long history of civil rights violations and corruption. Its politicians have been manifestly corrupt.

But it is also the city of jazz festivals and Mardi Gras, of delicious Creole cuisine and oyster bars, of Spanish moss-covered terraces and a streetcar called Need.

New Orleans will recover from this too. But as night fell, as families mourned their losses and prayed for those hospitalized, the Large Straightforward did not rest easy.