Nationwide Guard arrives in New Orleans for 1st New Yr’s since Bourbon Road assault : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6493x4329+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fac%2F25%2Fb260961d45d9a385668fd90ce810%2Fap25365020370521.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6493x4329+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fac%2F25%2Fb260961d45d9a385668fd90ce810%2Fap25365020370521.jpg" class="img" alt="Walking under flags that memorialize victims of Jan. 1, 2025 attack, members of the Louisiana National Guard, military police, and Louisiana law enforcement agencies patrol the French Quarter along Bourbon Street and intersecting streets as part of a National Guard deployment for New Year's celebrations in New Orleans, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)" fetchpriority="high"/> Strolling underneath flags that memorialize victims of Jan. 1, 2025 assault, members of the Louisiana Nationwide Guard, navy police, and Louisiana regulation enforcement businesses patrol the French Quarter alongside Bourbon Road and intersecting streets as a part of a Nationwide Guard deployment for New Yr's celebrations in New Orleans, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photograph/Matthew Hinton) Matthew Hinton/AP/FR170690 AP disguise caption

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Matthew Hinton/AP/FR170690 AP NEW ORLEANS — Nationwide Guard members arrived in New Orleans Tuesday to assist with security measures forward of New Yr's celebrations as metropolis officers are nonetheless searching for everlasting safety options practically a 12 months after a truck assault on Bourbon Road left 14 useless.

The rampage, during which a person drove round a police blockade within the early hours of Jan. 1, revealed safety vulnerabilities surrounding town's well-known road crammed with boisterous bars, brass bands taking part in on cobblestone corners and a gradual stream of partygoers carrying cocktails.

Whereas Louisiana officers say the favored vacationer vacation spot is secure and that they've carried out extra measures to crack down on potential threats, households of deceased victims say not sufficient has been accomplished to stop related tragedies.

The assault occurred when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Road, plowing into crowds celebrating New Yr's Day, killing 14 individuals and injuring dozens of others. Police shot and killed Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Military veteran who had proclaimed his assist for the Islamic State militant group on social media.

Within the wake of the rampage, metropolis officers, state businesses and regulation companies representing victims' households launched investigations into whether or not the assault may have been prevented. The investigations targeted on the road's bollard system of metal columns designed to dam automobiles from getting into the thoroughfare. The bollards had been being changed on the time.

Among the many victims had been Nikyra Dedeaux, an 18-year-old about to start out school who was on Bourbon Road with associates. Her mom, Melissa Dedeaux, informed The Related Press on Tuesday that whereas many will ring in 2026 with fireworks and merriment, she might be grieving. She has been haunted by her daughter's ultimate moments, captured in graphic video that circulated on social media.

"I am a guardian that needed to get up, go online my Fb account and see my daughter's final days — my daughter's final time. I did not get to see her on Bourbon the evening it occurred. I noticed her on a video," she informed the AP.

"I noticed no security," Dedeaux stated. "I noticed that my daughter may nonetheless be right here."

Questions nonetheless swirl across the road's barricade system, which is a patchwork of bollards, strategically parked police autos and 32 massive metal limitations that officers push into place each evening to type pedestrian zones.

"They don't seem to be meant to be utilized within the vogue they're," Samuel Palumbo, the eighth District New Orleans Police Division Captain, stated of the limitations that may face up to solely low-speed collisions. He burdened to the New Orleans Governmental Affairs Committee this month that the system is a "short-term resolution to a everlasting downside."

"We have to be taught from what occurred," Morris Bart, whose regulation agency is representing victims and their households, informed reporters Tuesday. "It is type of ridiculous ... {that a} 12 months after this tragedy nothing has been accomplished to resolve this case."

Palumbo urged town to put in everlasting safety gates that may face up to crashes as much as 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour). The committee opted to carry off on a vote till incoming Mayor Helena Moreno enters workplace in January.

A consulting agency, employed by town to conduct a safety evaluation, made one other suggestion: Make Bourbon Road a pedestrian solely space.

Whereas a lot of the road is proscribed to pedestrians at evening, the advice — which victims' households have supported — was largely ignored after French Quarter residents and enterprise house owners raised issues about accessing their houses and companies.

As town prepares for round the clock revelry, 350 Nationwide Guard members deployed by President Donald Trump's administration arrived to New Orleans.

A pair dozen members sporting military fatigues, with weapons of their holsters, may very well be seen Tuesday evening all through town's historic French Quarter, dwelling to Bourbon Road. They stood close to barricades, sipping cups of espresso and even chatting or taking footage with passersby.

Troops will keep via Carnival season, when vacationers descend on the Large Straightforward to partake in costumed celebrations and parades that snake via metropolis streets earlier than ending with Mardi Gras in mid-February. Holding

Republicans and Democrats have supported the extra assets — which additionally embrace state police troopers and Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries officers. Mayor-elect Moreno stated she appreciates the troops' presence and that it will increase the "visibility of safety belongings throughout main occasions."

Longtime French Quarter employee Miguel Thornton stated he is completely happy to see armed troops a 12 months after the assault.

"Lots of the service business professionals that had been out right here had been affected — they noticed the carnage, they needed to step over our bodies — and so individuals had been undoubtedly modified," Thornton stated. "So far as the Nationwide Guard, they have been right here earlier than. Actually, they're welcome."

Louisiana has a well-known Cajun French phrase, "Laissez les bon temps rouler," or "Let the nice instances roll." In New Orleans, a metropolis that closely depends on tourism, the present all the time goes on within the leisure district — even within the face of tragedy.

After the Bourbon Road assault, the strip was closed down as emergency crews tended to the injured, our bodies had been eliminated and blood was washed from the streets. By the following day, earlier than all of the victims had even been recognized by the coroner, the road was reopened. Inside just a few months, handwritten tributes on the website of the assault had been painted over.

Because the anniversary nears, vacationers once more flock to Bourbon Road for New Yr's celebrations. This time, suspended above them are a whole lot of handcrafted flags honoring the victims.

Buck Harley, who manages a Bourbon Road cigar store, stated he has needed to clarify the memorial to patrons.

"We appear to as a society overlook. And I do not assume it is due to an absence of empathy however as a result of there's one other large story taking its place," Harley stated. "I've to inform the vacationers what the flags are up there for, as a result of it is forgotten already."

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Cline reported from Baton Rouge.

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Brook is a corps member for The Related Press/Report for America Statehouse Information Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide service program that locations journalists in native newsrooms to report on undercovered points.