‘It’s devastating’: New Orleans reeling from deadly New Year’s Day attack | New Orleans truck attack

Across Bourbon and Saint Phillip, a few dozen meters from the police security line surrounding the crime scene Thursday morning, it was almost as if nothing had happened.

Tourists meandered past the ornate old Creole cottages, the bars served cold beers on tap, and horse-drawn carriages trudged through the western end of the French Quarter in a familiar scene.

Barely a day had passed since a massacre killed 14 people, injured more than 35 and also led to the death of the suspect about eight blocks up the street. But already now the area has been thrown back to functionality.

Behind the facade, however, sadness and melancholy have gripped the city and were particularly acute among the locals who live and work in this famous neighborhood in the city’s historic center.

At a street corner post office, Donyale Roberson served a small stream of customers sending their first packages of the year and took a moment to reflect.

“It’s devastating,” she said. “Because I don’t want to see the city cast in this light. It deserves better than that. There’s so much beauty here, and when it’s taken away and you’re put in a different light … it’s crazy.”

New Orleans so often reaches the pages of the national and international press in moments of crisis and disaster – from environmental disasters to waves of violent crime – that depictions of the city’s resilience is fast becoming almost a trope.

And yet, determination is something many here are quick to discuss in the wake of the attack just after 1 p.m. 3am on New Year’s Day when hundreds were out on the streets still dancing, reveling and ringing in 2025 before tragedy struck.

“Our abilities are constantly being tested,” said Roberson, 54. “But as a local, it’s not going to change anything about how I live my life.”

Further into the neighborhood, on Royal Street, which adjoins Bourbon, Harley Field served coffee and cake to a small line of sheriff’s deputies tired after a shift on police lines.

“It hurts us even more because this guy is not even from our town,” the 29-year-old said. “He’s from Texas. Why would he come here, to this community that’s so close-knit, and do this to us?”

While law enforcement officials had told reporters Wednesday they believed the suspected driver and gunman, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, may have acted with others, they changed their assessment Thursday and concluded he had acted alone. Jabbar, 42, was shot and killed when he exchanged gunfire with officers. He was inspired by the extremist ideology of the Islamic State, the FBI said.

Videos made by the gunman, and reported by CNNsuggesting that he may have considered violence against his own family before changing his plans to target New Orleans instead.

It didn’t take long for political opinions to overshadow some of the sadness felt throughout the city. Donald Trump sought to blame the attack on the immigration policies of the Democratic president he succeeds later this month, Joe Biden, while falsely imply Jabbar, who is an American citizen, was an immigrant.

Locally, too, Republican leaders in Louisiana have sought to place some of the blame on the city’s Democratic leaders, most vocally its embattled mayor, LaToya Cantrell. Some have pointed out that a metal bollard system in the French Quarter, designed to stop cars driving down the narrow, crowded streets during the festivities, was being replaced when the attack took place, meaning it was not operational.

“We’re dancing around the problem,” Louisiana’s Republican lieutenant governor, Billy Nungesser, told local media. “This mayor has been non-existent in getting things done that needed to be done.”

However, the noise did not seem to resonate with many residents who worked close to the attack.

“There’s been a lot of talk about saying, ‘They could have done this, they could have done that,'” said Gil Rubman, a 70-year-old jeweler who works on Royal Street. “But the bottom line is that there were 300 police in that area. And when something like this happens so spontaneously, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it from happening.”

Away from politics, the names of those killed continued to emerge.

Matthew Tenedorio, a 25-year-old audiovisual technician at the city’s Superdome sports arena. Nikyra Dedeaux, an 18-year-old aspiring nurse from Mississippi. Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old father of two from Louisiana’s state capital, Baton Rouge, and others from a wide spectrum of the community, some from the city, some from elsewhere.

On Thursday afternoon, officials confirmed they planned to reopen the blocks of Bourbon Street where the attack had occurred.

Street cleaners could be seen clearing rubbish and washing down the streets. Local officials held a small blessing ceremony at the intersection where the vandalism had begun.