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17 January 2025
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Texas man kills 15 on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street after driving truck with ISIS flag through crowd, US
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A Texas man ploughed a pickup truck flying an ISIS flag through New Year’s Day revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in the US on Wednesday, 1 January 2025, killing 15 and injuring more than 30 in an attack the FBI said is being investigated as an act of terrorism. Once the driver, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, age 42, a US citizen, crashed the white Ford truck around 03h15am, he opened fire on responding police officers, wounding two. He died in the gunfight.
The bloody scene came as a shock to one of the most popular party streets in the country, where people celebrating the turn to 2025 with friends in bars and clubs were instead met with bodies on the asphalt. Witnesses posted graphic videos to social media and tried to describe mayhem in interviews.
“It was unbelievable,” Jimmy Cothran, who witnessed the attack from a nightclub balcony, told NBC News. “It just kept going.”
He said he saw multiple bodies lying on the street within seconds, including many that were “horribly disfigured” — one marred by tire tracks.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference. “He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
Questions were raised about how the driver was able to get around barriers that were meant to keep pedestrians safe.
Cothran said that from the balcony where he was perched, he did not see any protective steel barricades in the area around Bourbon Street and that he had been surprised earlier in the evening that they were not in place.
NBC News was not able to immediately confirm what barricades, if any, had been put in place in the area.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Cantrell, the mayor, said bollards were not up because they were still under construction. She said the project was nearly finished, with completion expected before New Orleans hosts the Super Bowl in February.
Kirkpatrick said the suspect drove onto the sidewalk and around a “hard target”, which included officers, barriers and a car, to carry out the attack.
Source: NBC News
The bloody scene came as a shock to one of the most popular party streets in the country, where people celebrating the turn to 2025 with friends in bars and clubs were instead met with bodies on the asphalt. Witnesses posted graphic videos to social media and tried to describe mayhem in interviews.
“It was unbelievable,” Jimmy Cothran, who witnessed the attack from a nightclub balcony, told NBC News. “It just kept going.”
He said he saw multiple bodies lying on the street within seconds, including many that were “horribly disfigured” — one marred by tire tracks.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference. “He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
Questions were raised about how the driver was able to get around barriers that were meant to keep pedestrians safe.
Cothran said that from the balcony where he was perched, he did not see any protective steel barricades in the area around Bourbon Street and that he had been surprised earlier in the evening that they were not in place.
NBC News was not able to immediately confirm what barricades, if any, had been put in place in the area.
At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Cantrell, the mayor, said bollards were not up because they were still under construction. She said the project was nearly finished, with completion expected before New Orleans hosts the Super Bowl in February.
Kirkpatrick said the suspect drove onto the sidewalk and around a “hard target”, which included officers, barriers and a car, to carry out the attack.
Source: NBC News
