NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A driver behind the wheel of a pickup truck rammed into a crowd of New Orleans revelers on Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.
After the vehicle stopped, the driver emerged from the truck and opened fire on responding officers, New Orleans police said.
Some updates on the situation:
Biden: Authorities are investigating whether New Orleans attack is linked to Las Vegas explosion
President Joe Biden said federal agents are investigating whether the truck attack in New Orleans was linked to the explosion of a Telsa Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel.
“There’s nothing to report on that score at this time,” Biden said.
The Tesla Cybertruck appeared to be carrying fireworks when it caught fire and exploded Wednesday. One person died and seven others were injured.
Death toll now stands at 15
The New Orleans coroner now says 15 people were killed when a driver deliberately struck people in the French Quarter early on New Year’s Day.
Authorities previously said 10 had died. The driver was fatally shot by police.
The coroner, Dr. Dwight McKenna, says it will take several days to conduct autopsies. Once those are done and relatives are notified, officials will release the victims’ names, McKenna said in a statement.
By ERIC TUCKER and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A vehicle raced into a crowd of New Orleans revelers early on New Year’s Day, killing 10 people and injuring 35 others in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.
The driver of the vehicle was killed in a firefight with police following the attack around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday along Bourbon Street in the city’s bustling French Quarter, the FBI said.
After the vehicle came to a stop, the driver emerged from the truck and open fire on responding officers, New Orleans police said. Officers returned fire, striking and killing the driver, police said.
Two officers were shot and are in stable condition, police said. They were among 35 people injured.
At a news conference, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a “terrorist attack” and the city’s police chief said the act was clearly intentional.
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Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
“It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” Kirkpatrick said.
FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said officials were investigating the at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.
The area is known as one of the largest New Year’s Eve destinations.
Crowds in the city were ballooning in anticipation of Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome between Georgia and Notre Dame.
Kirkpatrick said police officers would work to ensure safety at the Sugar Bowl, indicating that the game would go on as scheduled.
Kevin Garcia, 22, told CNN that he saw a truck slamming into people on a sidewalk and heard gunshots.
“A body came flying at me,” he said.
Whit Davis told the network that he heard people yelling and running to the back as he was leaving a nightclub.
“When they finally let us out of the club, police waved us where to walk and were telling us to get out of the area fast. I saw a few dead bodies they couldn’t even cover up and tons of people receiving first aid,” said Davis, 22.
The injured were taken to five hospitals, the city’s emergency preparedness department said.
The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed, and the Justice Department said Attorney General Merrick Garland was also briefed.
The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence, a trend that has alarmed law enforcement officials and that can be difficult to protect against.
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg last month, killing four women and a 9-year-old boy. A man who drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee in 2021 is serving a life sentence after a judge rejected arguments from him and his family that mental illness drove him to do it. Six people were killed.
An Islamic extremist was sentenced last year to 10 life sentences for killing eight people with a truck on a bike path in Manhattan on Halloween in 2017. Also in 2017, a self-proclaimed admirer of Adolf Hitler slammed his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and is now serving a life sentence.
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Stephen Smith, Kevin McGill and Chevel Johnson in New Orleans and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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