Monday, February 10, 2025

Pickup truck plows into New Orleans NYE celebration

-

A man drove a pickup into a crowd gathered for New Year’s celebrations in the heart of the New Orleans French Quarter just after 3 AM Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and injuring a few dozen, in what the FBI says was a terrorist attack, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

Embed from Getty Images

“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference early Wednesday. “He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

After the vehicle came to a stop, the suspect opened fire on responding officers, according to a New Orleans Police Department website post. The officers returned fire and struck the perpetrator, fatally wounding him. Two NOPD officers were struck and injured in the exchange. Both were transported via EMS to a local hospital and were last listed in stable condition.

Law enforcement officials said they do not believe the suspect—Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a 42-year-old, Texas-born US citizen, honorably discharged from the Army—was “solely responsible” for the attack. NBC News later reported, however, that this statement was based on surveillance video that was later shown not to implicate other suspects and that no conclusions could be drawn, yet, about the involvement of other suspects. The FBI continues to seek the public’s help in identifying associates of the suspect or any connection to terrorist groups or organizations, including ISIS.

In addition to the New Year’s festivities going on in the popular tourist destination, tens of thousands of college football fans were in the city for Wednesday evening’s Sugar Bowl between Notre Dame and Georgia. The game has been postponed, officials said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Although names of most victims have not been released, one victim, Tiger Bech, 28, was taken to a New Orleans hospital where he died late Wednesday morning, according to Kim Broussard, the athletic director at St Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette, Louisiana.

KLFY-TV (CBS affiliate) reported that Bech played wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner, and defensive back at the high school, and earned all-state honors and All-Acadiana Regional and All-District First Team honors as a senior. He also lettered in lacrosse and track, leading the lacrosse team to a state title and reaching three state semifinals, the station reported.

Schools in New Orleans will soon return from their winter breaks. Homer Plessy Community Schools, for example, located just a short walk from the site of the attack, are expected to resume classes for middle schoolers on Monday.

In the absence or shortage of school psychologists, the burden of teaching students who have experienced a recent loss often falls on classroom teachers. I want to take this opportunity to recommend a book by Brittany R Collins to help guide educators through this time: Learning from Loss: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Supporting Grieving Students.

Paul Katulahttps://news.schoolsdo.org
Paul Katula is the executive editor of the Voxitatis Research Foundation, which publishes this blog. For more information, see the About page.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

Some IL superintendents report absenteeism increase

0
Some schools are reporting a momentary uptick in absenteeism, reportedly due to the president's recent executive order tied to immigration enforcement.

Digital Harbor HS closed after vandalism