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New Orleans was in full swing in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.
Revelers emerged from the bustling bars and packed clubs of the city’s French Quarter, an area often referred to as the beating heart of the city’s famous nightlife.
“It was all young people out there. A lot of 19, 20, 21-year-olds,” recalled Derrick Albert, a local DJ who plies his trade nightly on the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets.
That intersection is home to a crowded resort hotel, a store selling ice cream and chocolate candies, and restaurants selling oysters and daiquiris in large plastic to-go cups.
But around 03:15 (09:15 GMT), the youthful revelry turned into terror when a man – identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas resident and US Army veteran – was driving a truck rented from high speed. accelerate towards a crowd.
It killed at least 15 people and injured dozens, some seriously.
Grainy CCTV footage shows the moment the attack began, with the white van driving down Canal Street passing other vehicles, before turning right onto Bourbon Street, dodging a police car, suddenly accelerating and crashing into the crowd. .
“We just heard this screeching, engine revving and this huge, loud impact,” Kimberly Stricklen, a visitor from New Orleans, told Reuters. “Then people were screaming. The sound of metal and bodies crunching.”
The vehicle continued for three blocks, striking more pedestrians along the way, until the driver crashed and stopped near the corner of Bourbon and Conti streets.
Jabbar then exited his vehicle and fired at police. He died from return fire.
“We heard gunshots and saw people running in front of the window,” said Steve Hyde, a British visitor who was at a bar called Erin Rose, on Conti Street, right next to Bourbon. “Then the sirens started… I’m heartbroken. I love this city.”
At 3:17 a.m., just two minutes after the attack, New Orleans Police Department officers, already out on New Year’s Eve, were on the scene calling for urgent help, captured in a chaotic chatter on radio.
“I’ve got at least six victims. I’ve got an office doing chest compressions on one. I’ve got another white guy who’s having agonal breathing,” one officer can be heard saying, referring to an irregular, gasping breathing pattern common in emergencies. “Multiple casualties.”
Soon after, the area was filled with police, who cordoned off the entire area with crime scene tape and dozens of officers and vehicles while investigators arrived and ambulances left.
For Mr. Albert, the incident was a very close call.
Just a few weeks ago, the city had issued him a ticket and told him he had to move one block down from his usual spot, which would have been the same sidewalk the suspect drove on to pass the police car.
“That’s usually my corner,” he told the BBC, pointing to a Walgreen’s pharmacy on the edge of the crime scene.
“They would have killed me. Yesterday I was more than lucky. I would have been run over. That bill saved my life. It would have been the first one he ran over.”
The FBI has said the black flag of the Islamic State group was found inside the vehicle that ran over partygoers, along with two suspected improvised explosive devices discovered nearby.
Investigators have said they believe the driver of the vehicle was not acting alone.
But on the streets of New Orleans, much of the debate has centered on whether more could have been done to prevent the attack and keep people safe.
Barriers put up years ago to prevent vehicles from entering Bourbon Street were in the process of being replaced, so there were gaps. A lone police car was parked there.
“We had a car there. We had barriers there. We had officers there, and they still moved,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters. “Indeed we had a plan, but the terrorist defeated it.”
The perception that the road was not adequately secured has left some, like Albert, baffled.
He believes the number of people out for New Year’s Eve, as well as the thousands of people in town for the much-anticipated Sugar Bowl football game that had been scheduled for Jan. 1, warranted tighter security. .
A 2017 memo seen by CBS, the BBC’s US partner, revealed that officials in New Orleans were aware of the risk of a mass casualty attack using vehicles as weapons.
The document made specific reference to similar attacks that took place in France, the United Kingdom and New York.
“We all knew this could happen at some point. Maybe at Mardi Gras. Maybe at the Superbowl,” Albert said. “Of course they could have stopped it…they’ll be sued for that.”
Nearly 24 hours after the attack, the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets was still an active crime zone, with dozens of police cars blocking the road and police tape still hanging.
But nearby, life – and partying – little by little began to return to the French Quarter.
Bars on the same block where the attack occurred were doing brisk business, mainly with legions of football fans in town for the rescheduled Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame.
The music of a live jazz musician blared among the curious who had come to see the crime scene. Across the street, a Michael Jackson impersonator walked on the sidewalk as the forensic vehicle left the area.
While the area is still recovering from the attack and loss of life, many, like Albert, said they are confident the area will return to normal sooner rather than later.
“Of course we will,” he said. “Of course we will recover.”