Lawsuit by New Orleans truck attack victims says city, contractors failed to implement safety system

Author of the article:

Associated Press

Martha Bellisle

Published Jan 09, 2025  •  3 minute read

Shawn Westbrook prays at a memorial to the victims of a deadly truck attack on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, Friday, Jan. 3, 2025, in New Orleans. Photo by George Walker IV /AP Photo

Six people who were injured and the father of a man who was killed in the New Year’s truck attack filed a lawsuit Thursday against the City of New Orleans and two contractors, claiming they failed to protect revelers from an Army veteran who sped around a police blockade and raced down Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and injuring at least 30.

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The attack by Shamsud-Din Jabbar was tragic but preventable, leaving the six victims with broken bones, physical suffering and mental anguish and killing Brandon Taylor, according to the lawsuit filed in Orleans Parish Civil District Court by Matthew Hemmer with the Morris Bart Law Firm. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police.

The plaintiffs, who are seeking unspecified damages, include Alexis Windham, who suffered impact and gunshot injuries to her foot, and Corian Evans, Jalen Lilly, Justin Brown, Shara Frison and Gregory Townsend, who suffered broken bones and other injuries. They were joined by Brandon Taylor’s father, Joseph. Windham, Evans, Lilly and Brown are from Alabama while Frison and Townsend are from Missouri.

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Taylor, 43, worked as a restaurant cook in the New Orleans area and loved music, especially rap. He leaves behind his fiancee, who was with him when he was killed, and his father.

Email and phone messages left with the City of New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and contractors Mott MacDonald and Hard Rock Construction seeking comment on the lawsuit were not immediately returned.

Incidents of vehicles driving into crowds started increasing after 2016, when 86 people were killed on Bastille Day in Nice, France, the lawsuit said. New Orleans sought advice on the risk of this type of attack in the French Quarter and invested $40 million in public safety improvement projects, including acquiring portable bollards — protective columns designed to block vehicle traffic _to keep cars off Bourbon Street.

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However, the bollards were often disabled when the tracks they move on got clogged with beads, drink containers, rainwater and other fluids, the lawsuit said. A 2019 report by New York firm Interfor International said the French Quarter was at risk for a vehicular attack, adding “the current bollard system on Bourbon Street does not appear to work” and should be fixed immediately.

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An April 2024 report by Mott MacDonald, a design firm hired for roadway projects, included the possibility of a Ford F-150 truck turning on to Bourbon Street, which is what happened on New Year’s Day, but the company’s bollard replacement project did not include fixed bollards in the French Quarter, the lawsuit said.

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Construction on the safety updates began in November, but work on Canal Street didn’t begin until Dec. 19 and construction was ongoing on Jan. 1, when the attack occurred, the suit said. Authorities have said Jabbar drove an F-150 pickup truck onto a sidewalk around a police car blockading the Canal Street entrance to Bourbon Street.

“Appropriate barriers, temporary or otherwise, were not erected in the construction site,” the lawsuit said. “As a result, the intersection had the appearance of a soft target. Upon initial penetration, Mr. Jabbar was able to travel approximately three blocks down Bourbon Street.”

The contractors and the city failed to implement an effective system for deterring such a threat, the suit said.

Two other law firms announced Wednesda y that they represent nearly two dozen victims of the attack and are conducting their own investigation, stating “officials were tragically aware and did not protect the public.”

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