Vehicle rams New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, killing 10: ‘A body came flying at me’

The driver was 'hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,' police commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said

Author of the article:

The Associated Press

Eric Tucker And Jim Mustian

Published Jan 01, 2025  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  3 minute read

Police investigators surround a white truck that has been crashed into a work lift in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 1, 2025. At least 10 people were killed and 30 injured Wednesday when a vehicle plowed overnight into a New year's crowd in the heart of the thriving New Orleans tourist district, authorities in the southern U.S. city said. Photo by MATTHEW HINTON /AFP via Getty Images

A vehicle raced into a crowd of New Orleans revelers early on New Year’s Day, killing 10 people and injuring 30 others in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.

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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.

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Superintendent of Police for the New Orleans Police Department Anne Kirkpatrick makes a statement after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’ Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. Photo by Gerald Herbert /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Two officers were shot and are in stable condition, police said.

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.

Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

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.

Emergency services attend the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’ Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. Photo by Gerald Herbert /THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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.

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“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.

Police cordon off the intersection of Canal Street and Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 1, 2025. Photo by MATTHEW HINTON /AFP via Getty Images

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.

— Stephen Smith, Kevin McGill, Zeke Miller and Chevel Johnson contributed to this report.

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