Drew Hawkins
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-03-2025 8PM EST
Tyler Burt knows the streets of the French Quarter like the back of his hand. A graduate student at Loyola University by day and a pedicab driver by night, he was parting ways with his last customer for the night when the truck turned onto Bourbon Street.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-03-2025 8PM EST
Burt says he's still trying to recover from it, but it takes time.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
Good morning, Steve.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
Yeah. So at this point, investigators say that the driver crashed through police barricades. Officers opened fire. The driver fired back. Two officers were injured before the driver was shot and killed. The FBI has called it an act of terrorism by an American citizen. And we know that he had an ISIS flag on his truck. Here's President Biden talking about it last night.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
Investigators say that they believe the suspect, Shamsuddin Jabbar, may not have acted alone as well. Biden said law enforcement is looking for possible co-conspirators or associations and officials are urging people who might know anything to come forward. While at this point, Bourbon Street and most of the French Quarter remains off limits.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
And also yesterday's Sugar Bowl game between Notre Dame and Georgia was postponed until this afternoon.
Up First from NPR
New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
Yeah, so there were automatic bollards installed on Bourbon Street more than a decade ago. And so these are these barriers that go up and down automatically to block off the streets. But they haven't worked in quite some time. So instead, what New Orleans police did was they parked police cruisers at the intersection to prevent traffic from getting in.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
But the suspect simply drove around the police cruiser. He went up onto the sidewalk and then began speeding down the road and started running into people in the crowded streets. Mm-hmm. The city was actually in the process of getting those bollards fixed ahead of the big Super Bowl that's set to be held here. But that process, obviously, it wasn't complete.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
And critics have asked why these bollards have taken so long to be repaired in an area that has, you know, such heavy tourist and foot traffic.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
Yeah, yeah, it's a somber mood. I think there's also some anger that this happened. The witnesses described a chaotic, tragic scene with people out celebrating New Year's Eve that were suddenly plunged into panic and devastation. Like I mentioned, there's also the Sugar Bowl. It's a really big deal.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
But many residents and visitors right now are still grappling with shock and grief as the city tries to recover. And like I said, there's also frustration with the city of New Orleans, who some people feel just didn't do enough to keep people safe.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
Yeah, we know that among the 15 people who were killed, one was Tiger Beck. He's described as a standout athlete from Lafayette, Louisiana. and a Mississippi teenager, Nakaira Dedeau. Injuries span a wide range. We've learned about two 20-year-old women from Fort Myer, Florida, who were hurt and are currently hospitalized.
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New Orleans Attack, Suspect's Texas Home, Las Vegas Truck Explosion
But the thing right now is that officials say they're waiting to notify families before they can release the names of all the victims.