After an Islamic State sympathizer rammed a truck into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in 2016, horrified New Orleans leaders were anxious to protect their city's famed French Quarter, where crowds of revelers pack the cobblestone streets, especially during big events like Mardi Gras.
By the next year, steel columns known as bollards were installed to restrict vehicle access to Bourbon Street. The posts retracted to allow for deliveries to its bars and restaurants, until — gummed up by Mardi Gras beads, beer and other detritus — their tracks stopped working reliably.
So when New Year’s Eve arrived, the bollards were gone. They were being replaced ahead of the Super Bowl, which New Orleans will host on Feb. 9.
That left a critical security gap as thousands of New Year’s revelers crowded Bourbon Street. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran inspired by the Islamic State group, exploited that gap when he drove a truck onto a sidewalk early Wednesday and sped around a police car stationed as a temporary barricade, killing 14 people.
It was the attack New Orleans had feared since the deadly 2016 rampage in the French Riviera city of Nice that killed 86 people — and one that could have been prevented or limited with temporary or permanent vehicle barriers, said Rob Reiter, an expert on protecting retail stores and crowds from accelerating vehicles for the Security Industry Association.
“This was foreseeable and predictable and preventable,” Reiter said. “It’s clearly a failure of safety and security.”
The terrorism threat to New Orleans was long apparent. Five years ago, a New York-based firm was hired to conduct a “discreet, confidential physical security and vulnerability assessment” of the city's French Quarter.
A confidential portion of the firm's report addressed concerns about the threat of a vehicular ramming attack, The New York Times reported. It also warned the city's Bourbon Street bollards did “not appear to work” and recommended fixing them immediately.
A public version of the firm’s report for the French Quarter Management District — a political subdivision of the state of Louisiana — merely called for imposing more vehicle restrictions on Bourbon Street. It mentioned the threat of terrorism only in passing.
“It’s very troubling that this problem was identified in 2019 and the incoming City Council was not made aware of this recommendation, nor were we made aware of what steps were being taken to resolve this significant issue,” New Orleans Councilman JP Morrell told The Associated Press on Friday.
Former New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison, who led the department from 2014 until 2019, said the bollards were reinforced by large public service vehicles such as dump and trash trucks, placed to prevent other vehicles from entering. Harrison said he and then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu wanted to further “fortify” the bollards.
“It was a lesson learned from Nice,” Harrison said Thursday. “I remember vividly the mayor saying, ‘We have to learn the lesson now. Let’s do it now.’”
But Reiter, whose association represents companies that manufacture and install bollards, said the city failed to adequately maintain the tracks the bollards moved on. The tracks got “gummed up” by everything from beer to Mardi Gras beads and stopped working reliably, he said.
Concentric Security, an Alabama-based firm that provided oversight for the installation of the bollards, said the system functioned as envisioned at the time.
“But we did observe Mardi Gras beads and other debris inside the bollard wells after a routine examination” later, a company spokesperson said. The company declined to release additional details, citing confidentiality concerns.
Heald LTD, the United Kingdom-based company that designed the bollards installed in 2017, said “basic maintenance and cleaning is all that is required” for upkeep.
City officials were removing the Heald-designed barriers and replacing them with a different system of stainless steel bollards before the upcoming Super Bowl.
Reiter questioned why the city did not deploy temporary physical barriers that it owns for New Year’s Eve.
“Had they taken the usual measures and done them in the usual proximity to where he made his turn, they absolutely stop this thing,” Reiter said.
“If they put the measures further back, it’s possible that he would have had enough speed to get past the first set of barriers but he would have disabled the vehicle. So the amount of penetration would have been much smaller and the casualties would have been much fewer,” Reiter added.
Harrison, the former police commissioner, said the bollards alone may not have prevented the bloodshed.
“He had explosive devices in the truck. He had guns. He had other things that he could have gotten out of the truck and done as much damage outside of the truck,” said Harrison, who now runs a New Orleans-based consulting company.
Michael Rodriguez, vice president at California-based 1-800-Bollards, said his company recently shipped 106 stainless steel bollards to New Orleans for its Bourbon Street project.
He said the city requested part of the shipment be expedited so installation could be completed before the Super Bowl, and the company put the order on a fast track.
But, Rodriguez said, the public will never know what impact they could have had on the attack.
“They weren’t installed. That’s the obstacle,” he said. “Bollards are great for a visual and an actual barrier. But if they aren’t installed or deployed or engaged, then they’re really not going to do anything.”
Kunzelman reported from Washington. Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa. Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle and Jim Mustian in Black Mountain, North Carolina, contributed.
FILE - Emergency services attend to the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - A memorial for the victims of a deadly New Year's Day truck attack stands on the sidewalk in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - An Islamic State flag lies on the ground rolled up behind the pickup truck that Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
FILE - The barricade that Shamsud-Din Jabbar hit with his truck while driving into a crowd on New Year's Day is seen on Bourbon Street, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
A British man who was killed when the driver of a white pickup truck sped down Bourbon Street packed with holiday revelers was identified Saturday as the stepson of a former nanny to the Royal Family. Prince William expressed shock and sadness at the news of the death of Edward Pettifer of London.
A nursing assistant in her 40s was the last of the 14 victims killed in the New Orleans truck attack to be identified, according to her family who said the coroner's office confirmed LaTasha Polk's death on Saturday.
The coroner's office said all the victims died from blunt force injuries. The suspect in the attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was fatally shot in a firefight with police.
The youngest victim was 18 years old and the oldest 63. Most victims were in their 20s. They came from from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey and Great Britain.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the innocent lives lost will never be forgotten, as he declared on Friday a period of mourning for the victims, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 6. A different victim is to be remembered each day.
“However, Louisiana and her people will never cower in fear," he said. “Instead, we will unite and come back stronger in honor of every person who lost their lives that day.”
About 30 people were injured and 16 remained hospitalized as of Friday.
LaTasha Polk, a nursing assistant and mother of a teenage boy, was the last victim in the New Year's truck attack to be identified, according to her family, who gathered at a vigil Saturday evening to light candles. They said the coroner's office informed them Saturday morning. They had been looking for her and were grateful for the closure.
“It was the wrong call we got, but at least we got the call,” said LaTasha Polk's cousin, Sebastian Polk. He said he was all out of tears by the time he arrived at the vigil to honor his cousin, whom he described being as close as a sister.
The coroner did not specify the reason for the delay, her aunt Kim Polk said.
“Every time you saw her she was smiling,” said her cousin Courtney Polk, pressing her hands together in front of her face and holding back tears. “It’s hard but we see all the love for her.”
Some of LaTasha’s relatives held each other crying on the curb near the cross where they had placed candles for her and other victims.
“Tasha, she was a loving person, and for her life to be taken away — unimaginable,” Kim Polk said. “To wake up and have that taken from you.”
Thirty-one year old Edward Pettifer, a British citizen, was identified Saturday as one of the 14 victims killed in the truck attack.
Pettifer’s family said they were “devastated at the tragic news of Ed‘s death” and described him as “a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew and a friend to so many.”
“We will all miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with the other families who have lost their family members due to this terrible attack,” the family added.
The U.K.’s Foreign Office also said it was supporting Pettifer’s family and was in contact with U.S. authorities.
Brandon Taylor, 43, of Harvey, Louisiana, was killed when the pickup truck careened down Bourbon Street.
Elliot Wilkinson, 40, of Slidell, Louisiana, died in the New Year's attack. Cecil Wilkinson said in a message to his little brother, Elliot Wilkinson, on Facebook that he was loved “and you will truly be missed.”
“I know life was hard for you at times. But I wasn’t expecting to get the phone call this morning you was one of them that got hit in New Orleans in the French Quarter,” Wilkinson said in the post.
After years working in the service industry and maintenance, New Orleans native Terrence Kennedy spent his retirement doing what he loved: strolling down to catch the ever-present party in the French Quarter.
“Bourbon is like a free party," his niece, Monisha James, told The Associated Press. “He was enjoying his city that he enjoyed for 63 years.”
James said her uncle liked to people-watch around the French Quarter and often sparked conversations with strangers. “That was what he was doing to enjoy his retirement,” she said.
Kennedy had told his sister on New Year’s Eve that he was going out. When he didn’t answer the phone the next morning, the family spent a frantic day searching until the coroner confirmed he died in the New Year’s Day attack.
The family still doesn’t know if he died from the car’s impact or gunshot wounds; all they were told is that he was still alive when he got to the hospital.
James, 43, described her uncle as a humble helper and a handyman. Whether it was fixing up a house or playing with his nieces and nephews, he was always eager to serve others.
“Just a sweet, kind, loving, helpful person that would not harm anyone,” James said.
Sadly, illness had affected his family in recent years. Four of Kennedy’s siblings died before him, including a sister who had passed away a month earlier. The violent nature of Kennedy’s death stunned the family, on top of everything they’ve been through lately. Right now, said James, they’re supporting each other.
“That’s such a shock to our family because never in a million years would you be able to tell me that’s what happened to him,” she said.
Kennedy’s younger sister Jacqueline Kennedy, 59, said her brother was known for his big heart and his love of sports.
“My brother had a kind heart. He was loving and caring and giving and he loved the Pittsburgh Steelers,” she said.
Billy DiMaio, 25, of Holmdel, New Jersey, was humble and gentled-hearted, so devoted to family that he had a tattoo featuring all of his cousins’ names, his parents told NOLA.com.
A New York City-based account executive for the media company Audacy, DiMaio was in New Orleans to celebrate New Year’s Eve and see friends who planned to go to the Sugar Bowl, Tracie and Bill DiMaio, of Holmdel, New Jersey, told the news site. His friends escaped injury.
“He was a good, humble kid,” Bill DiMaio said. “He loved life.”
Billy DiMaio grew up on Long Island, New York, before the family moved to New Jersey. He graduated in 2022 from Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, where he was on the lacrosse team and earned a master’s degree.
“He was a pure, gentle-hearted soul," his mother said. “He will be truly missed.”
He had worked for Audacy since 2023.
“Beyond his professional achievements, Billy will be fondly remembered for his unwavering work ethic, positive attitude, and kindness," Audacy said in an emailed statement.
Hurbert Gauthreaux, 21, of Gretna, Louisiana, was among the victims, the coroner's office said.
Archbishop Shaw High School, in Marrero, Louisiana, posted on Facebook that Gauthreaux was from the class of 2021.
Gauthreaux “was tragically killed in the senseless act of violence that occurred early this morning in the French Quarter. He was 21 years old,” the Catholic boys school posted Wednesday.
Kareem Badawi, 23, was a University of Alabama freshman when he was killed in the attack. A native of Louisiana and a graduate of the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, Badawi had started at the Alabama university this fall.
“My son was full of life,” his father Belal Badawi said in an interview.
Back home in Baton Rouge for winter break, Badawi had gone to New Orleans with friends to celebrate the new year, his father said. After they saw the news of the truck attack, they tried to reach Kareem, but he didn't answer.
“Then I saw his phone when I tracked it was in the area that it happened,” belal Badawi said. “So, then we knew that’s something wrong. He’s not answering. We drove to New Orleans. We live in Baton Rouge, we went to the hospital and we waited a few hours and the FBI came with the list of all the casualties.”
Badawi said he was a lovely boy.
“I lost my son. He’s a good boy,” he said of his son. “Unfortunately, his life ended that quick and with no reason. Just nothing he did to deserve for somebody to come and kill him.”
Andrew Dauphin, 26, of Montgomery, Alabama, did in the attack.
Christopher B. Roberts, president of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, said on the social platform X that Dauphin was 2023 graduate.
“Words cannot convey the sorrow the Auburn Family feels for Drew’s family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time,” Roberts said. “Our thoughts are with the Dauphin family and the families of all the victims of this senseless tragedy.”
Dauphin was a supplier process engineer at the American Honda Motor Company in Birmingham, Alabama, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Matthew Tenedorio of Picayune, Mississippi, was killed in the truck attack, the coroner's office said.
“He was 25 years old. He was just starting life. He had the job of his dreams,” his mother, Cathy Tenedorio, told NBC News. “It’s just very sad.”
A GoFundMe page created by a cousin says he was an audiovisual technician at the Superdome.
“He was a wonderful kid,” Louis Tenedorio added. “He loved people. He loved animals. He always had a smile. So many friends. He had so many friends.”
Cathy Tenedorio said she had spent New Year’s Eve with Matthew and another one of her sons.
“We had dinner and we did fireworks outside, and just laughing and hugging each other and telling each other we loved each other,” she said. She added that they had tried to dissuade him from going into the city.
“They don’t think about risk,” she said.
Zion Parsons, of Gulfport, Mississippi, had been celebrating New Year’s Eve at his first night on Bourbon Street when a vehicle appeared and plowed into his friend, Nikyra Dedeaux, 18, who he said had dreamed of becoming a nurse.
“A truck hit the corner and comes barreling through throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air,” Parsons told The Associated Press. “It hit her and flung her like at least 30 feet and I was just lucky to be alive."
As the crowd scattered in the chaos he ran through a gruesome aftermath of bleeding and maimed victims, hearing gunshots and explosive sounds.
“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering” Parsons said. “People crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground. It was just insane, like the closest thing to a war zone that I’ve ever seen.”
Dedeaux had a job at a hospital and was set to start college and begin working towards her goal of becoming a registered nurse.
“She had her mindset — she didn’t have everything figured out but she had the plan laid down,” Parsons said.
A 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge, Reggie Hunter had just left work and headed to celebrate New Year’s with a cousin when the attack happened, his first cousin Shirell Jackson told Nola.com.
Hunter died and his cousin was injured, Jackson said. The coroner's office said he was from Prairieville, Louisiana.
Tiger Bech, a 27-year-old former high school and college football player from Louisiana was among those killed.
Kim Broussard, athletic director at St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette, told NOLA.com that Bech attended the high school, where he played wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner and defensive back. Bech played football at Princeton University before graduating in 2021.
Marty Cannon, STM principal and former coach of Bech, said he was charismatic, intelligent and an incredibly talented football player. He regularly returned home to visit his tight-knit family, close friends and people at the school. He was home over Christmas.
“We live in a relatively small community here where not a lot of people leave but many do," Cannon said. “I'm not surprised at all that Tiger could take off from south Louisiana and go off and get an amazing education at a place like Princeton and then lock himself into a community up there and just flourish. He’s that kind of guy.”
Bech has been working at Seaport Global. “He was extremely well regarded by everybody who knew him," said company spokesperson Lisa Lieberman.
Nicole Perez was a single mother to a 4-year-old son working hard to make life better for her family when she was killed, according to her employer.
Perez, 27, was recently promoted to manager at Kimmy’s Deli in Metairie, Louisiana, and “was really excited about it,” deli owner Kimberly Usher said in an interview with the AP. Usher confirmed Perez’s death through her sister, who also works for her.
Usher said Perez would walk in the morning to the deli, which opened at breakfast time, and ask lots of questions about the business side of the operations. She also was permitted to bring her son, Melo, to work.
“She was a really good mom,” said Usher, who started a GoFundMe account to cover Perez’s burial costs and to help with expenses for her son that “he will need to transition into a new living situation,” the donation request says.
— Heaven Sensky-Kirsch said her father, Jeremi Sensky, endured 10 hours of surgery for injuries that included two broken legs. He was taken off a ventilator Thursday.
Jeremi Sensky was ejected from the wheelchair he was using and had bruises to his face and head, Sensky-Kirsch said in a phone interview from a hospital intensive care unit.
“He’s talking right now,” Sensky-Kirsch said late Thursday morning.
Sensky, 51, who works in the family’s tree service business, had driven from his home in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, to New Orleans to celebrate the holiday.
Before the attack, Sensky and two friends had been having pizza, his daughter said. Sensky left them to return to his hotel on Canal Street because he felt cold, she said.
Sensky-Kirsch said others could see the attacker coming and were able to run out of the way, but her father “was stuck on the road.” His wheelchair can be seen in some images lodged against a crane.
When he didn’t return to the hotel, they went to look for him, she said.
“We thought he was dead,” Sensky-Kirsch said. “We can’t believe he’s alive.”
— Ryan Quigley, who was a teammate of Bech’s at Princeton, was with him when they were struck by the truck. Quigley was injured, according to family and friends.
“Ryan is doing okay. He is stable and resting in the company of his family and friends,” the Quigleys said in an update on a GoFundMe page set up by his friends. “Ryan loves you all. Please keep the Bech family, the other families, and all of those affected by this tragedy in your prayers. Thank you all.”
— University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead said on X that a student was critically injured in the attack and is receiving medical treatment. He did not name the student.
— The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X that two Israeli citizens were injured in the attack.
— University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce said Thursday that one of the university’s students was critically injured in New Orleans. Boyce did not identify the student.
This story corrects the name of victim to LaTasha Polk, not Tasha Polk.
Jack Brook and Sharon Lurye in New Orleans, Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Travis Loller in Nashville and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama contributed to this report. Bellisle reported from Seattle.
Jessica Perez, holding flowers left, hugs her mother Martha Perez who cries out by a cross memorializing her daughter, Nicole Perez, who was a victim on the New Year's Day attack, on Canal Street near the intersection of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Long Island, New York residents Louis Tenedorio holds hands with family friend Angelique Whittington, left, and his wife, Cathy Tenedorio, by a memorial on Bourbon Street and Canal Street in New Orleans, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, where his son, Matthew Tenedorio, was killed as one of the victims of the New Year's Day deadly truck attack and shooting. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Long Island, New York residents Louis Tenedorio is hugged by family friend Angelique Whittington, left, while holding the hand of his wife, Cathy Tenedorio, by a memorial Bourbon Street and Canal Street in New Orleans, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, where their son, Matthew Tenedorio, was killed as one of the victims of the New Year's Day deadly truck attack and shooting. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Courtney Polk, cousin of Tasha Polk, who was killed in the New Year's Day attack, reacts at a memorial on Bourbon Street and Canal Street in New Orleans, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Long Island, New York residents Louis Tenedorio, left, and his wife, Cathy Tenedorio, embrace on by a memorial Bourbon Street and Canal Street in New Orleans, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, where their son, Matthew Tenedorio, was killed as one of the victims of the New Year's Day deadly truck attack and shooting. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Courtney Polk, cousin of Tasha Polk, who was killed in the New Year's Day attack, reacts at a memorial on Bourbon Street and Canal Street in New Orleans, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Jessica Perez, holding flowers left, hugs her mother Martha Perez who cries out by a cross memorializing her daughter, Nicole Perez, who was a victim on the New Year's Day attack, on Canal Street near the intersection of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
A memorial to the victims of a deadly truck attack is seen on Canal Street in the French Quarter, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
A woman places flowers next to photos of victim Matthew Tenedorio at memorial on Canal Street for the victims of a deadly truck attack on New Year's Day in New Orleans, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Trevant Hayes, 20, sits in the French Quarter after the death of his friend, Nikyra Dedeaux, 18, after a pickup truck crashed into pedestrians on Bourbon Street followed by a shooting in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Zion Parsons, 18, talks about the death of his friend, Nikyra Dedeaux, 18, and the scene after a pickup truck crashed into pedestrians on Bourbon Street followed by a shooting in the French Quarter in New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
