New Year’s Eve celebrations in New Orleans turn to horror and tragedy

New Orleans was in full swing in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day.

Revelers spilled out of the bustling bars and packed clubs in the city’s French Quarter, an area often referred to as the beating heart of the city’s famous nightlife.

“It was all the young kids out there. A lot of 19, 20, 21-year-olds,” recalled Derrick Albert, a local DJ who spins nightly at the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets.

This intersection is home to a full tourist hotel, an ice cream and chocolate cream shop, and restaurants selling oysters and daiquiris in large plastic takeout cups.

But around 03:15 (09:15 GMT), the youthful revelry turned to terror when a man – identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas resident and US Army veteran – drove a rental truck at high speed into the crowd .

He killed at least 15 people and injured dozens, some seriously.

Grainy CCTV footage shows the moment the attack began, with the white pickup driving down Canal Street past other vehicles before turning right onto Bourbon Street, swerving around a police car, suddenly accelerating and plowing into crowds .

“We just heard this scream, an engine revving and a huge, loud bang,” Kimberly Stricklen, a visitor to New Orleans, told Reuters. “Then the people screaming. The sound of crunching metal and bodies.”

The vehicle would continue for three blocks — hitting more pedestrians along the way — until the driver crashed and came to rest near the corner of Bourbon and Conti streets.

Jabbar then exited his vehicle and fired at police. He was killed by their return fire.

“We heard shots and saw people running past the window,” said Steve Hyde, a British visitor who was at a bar called the Erin Rose on Conti Street, just off Bourbon. “Then the sirens started… My heart is broken. I love this city.”

By 3:17 a.m. — just two minutes after the attack — New Orleans Police Department officers, already out in force for New Year’s Eve, were on the scene calling for emergency help, caught in a chaotic radio call.

“I have at least six victims. I have an office that does chest compressions on one. I have another white male who has agonal breathing,” one officer can be heard saying, referring to gasping, irregular breathing common in emergency situations. “Multiple casualties.”

Soon after, the area was swarming 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 very close.

Just a few weeks ago, he was issued a ticket by the city and told he had to move down the block from his usual spot — which would have been on the very sidewalk the suspect walked across to pass the police car.

“This is usually my corner,” he told the BBC, pointing to the Walgreen’s pharmacy at the end of the crime scene.

“I was going to get killed. I was more than lucky yesterday. He was going to run me over. That ticket saved my life. I was going to be the first one he hit.”

The FBI said the black flag of the Islamic State group was found inside the vehicle that plowed into partygoers, along with two suspected improvised explosive devices found nearby.

The investigation is ongoing and it remains unclear whether Jabbar acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy.

But on the streets of New Orleans, much of the debate has focused on whether more could have been done to prevent the attack and keep people safe.

The barriers put up years ago to prevent vehicles from entering Bourbon Street were 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 were still moving,” New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters. “We did have a plan, but the terrorist foiled it.

It is believed that the road is not properly secured, as Mr. Albert, puzzled.

He believes the number of people out on New Year’s Eve, as well as the thousands of people in town for the much-anticipated Sugar Bowl, which was scheduled for Jan. 1, warrants 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 specifically mentions similar attacks carried out in France, the United Kingdom and New York.

“We all knew it could happen at some point. Maybe at Mardi Gras. Maybe the Super Bowl,” Mr. Albert said. “Of course they could have stopped it … they will be sued for it.”

Nearly 24 hours after the attack, the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets remains a high-crime area, with dozens of police cars blocking the road and police tape still up.

But nearby, life — and partying — slowly began to return to the French Quarter.

Bars on the same block as the attack were bustling, mostly for the legions of football fans in town for the rescheduled Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame.

Music from a live jazz musician entertains curious onlookers who come to view the crime scene. Across the street, a Michael Jackson impersonator moonwalked down the sidewalk as the coroner’s car left the area.

Although the area is still reeling from the attack and loss of life, many, like Mr Albert, said they were confident the area would return to normal sooner rather than later.

“Of course we will,” he said. “Of course we’ll be back.”