In the aftermath of the devastating terrorist attack in New Orleans yesterday, one of the biggest questions has been: How was that possible?
The attack was carried out around 3:15 AM on New Year’s Day when 42-year old Shamsud Din Jabbar drove a Ford pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street at a high rate of speed, killing 14 people and injuring dozens more before crashing into a construction lift.
Jabbar then exited his vehicle and began firing at police officers, shooting two before being shot and killed by the brave law enforcement who ran towards the danger.
The suspect not only had an ISIS flag on his truck during the attack, but was also reportedly carrying several homemade explosive devices, and police later located other devices placed around the French Quarter and were able to safely disable them.
During a press conference this morning, the FBI revealed that Jabbar had posted several videos online leading up to the attack expressing his support of Islam and ISIS, while also claiming that he had originally intended to kill his family but didn’t believe it would attract enough media coverage.
Initially, authorities believed that others were involved in the planning and carrying out of the terrorist attack, but today they said that officials now believe Jabbar acted alone.
The massive investigation has of course only just begun, and there’s plenty that’s still not known about the attack, the suspect and his motives, as well as ongoing threats to the city and elsewhere around the country. But one question that was on everybody’s mind in the immediate aftermath was just how Jabbar was able to get onto Bourbon Street with his vehicle in the first place.
If you’ve ever been to the famous party strip in New Orleans, you know that it’s closed to vehicle traffic in the evenings as pedestrians flood the street and bounce around from place to place, usually with a drink in hand thanks to the lack of an open container law in the Crescent City.
It’s a magical place unlike any other, so the idea that somebody was so easily able to drive onto the street and into the crowd was an immediate red flag and raised serious concerns.
Surveillance video of the start of the attack shows the terrorist in his white Ford truck driving down Canal Street, which runs perpendicular to Bourbon Street along the edge of the French Quarter, before suddenly making a right turn onto Bourbon around a police cruiser that was blocking the street.
JUST IN: New footage shows the moment Shamsud Din Jabbar allegedly navigated around a police cruiser barricade to carry out the terror attack.
According to local reports, the city of New Orleans was replacing Bourbon Street bollards.
“We have these hydraulic steel barriers from… pic.twitter.com/gTSQAEHvyA
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 1, 2025
But why wasn’t there anything else stopping him from entering the crowded street?
Well back in 2017, the city installed large metal bollards blocking off Bourbon Street and preventing traffic from entering the area. The mechanical bollards were able to slide in and out of place so that the street would be accessible when needed, but able to be closed off when the crowds were out.
Bourbon street usually has steel beams and barriers to block cars from doing exactly what just happened last night
Why were they not activated on a huge holiday like New Years?
PC: @the_typical_lib pic.twitter.com/ufJFEFOB5m
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 1, 2025
Obviously the bollards weren’t in place on New Year’s Eve, and when asked why, officials gave the most New Orleans answer ever: They weren’t working because they had been damaged by Mardi Gras beads.
The bollards had apparently been malfunctioning for quite some time due to beads, doubloons, and other debris preventing them from operating properly. And with New Orleans set to host the Super Bowl next month, quickly followed by Mardi Gras, the city was working to upgrade the bollards in time for the crowds that would be coming to the city for those events.
According to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell:
“As it relates to the bollards on Bourbon Street, over 10 years ago, the city of New Orleans implemented an infrastructure project placing bollards on Bourbon Street. Shortly thereafter, the malfunctions of those bollards ensued, from Mardi Gras beads on down.
But the New Orleans police department deemed them inefficient because they did not operate the way they were intended to do.
Because the city of New Orleans is hosting the Super Bowl this year, it gave the city of New Orleans the opportunity to go further and deeper with infrastructure improvements, as we’ve been talking about.
So as a result of that, we were able to build in bollard replacement into our Super Bowl infrastructure package. And because of that, the city of New Orleans has moved forward with that infrastructure that is nearing completion.
Bollards were not up because they are near completion, with the expectation of being completed, of course, by Super Bowl.”
Of course if you’ve ever been to New Orleans you know the amount of debris caused by Mardi Gras beads – and not just during Mardi Gras, but year round. They’re often thrown from the balconies on Bourbon Street and worn by tourists year round. I rode in a Mardi Gras parade last year and I think I threw out a few thousand strands of beads myself, not to mention all of the other throws.
The city has been working to try to bring down the number of beads that litter the streets every year, encouraging Mardi Gras krewes to switch to more sustainable options than disposable beads.
But beads are obviously a big part of the culture in New Orleans – for better or worse.
And honestly, who knows if they would have even made a difference in this case. The bollards obviously only block the street, and wouldn’t have done much good at stopping somebody from driving on the sidewalk to get around them.
Either way, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry promised to get to the bottom of the failures and ensure that the weak points were secured in the future:
“We recognize we got a problem right here. We’re going to fix it. It is going to be a top priority as we go into the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras. And the solution that we’re going to come up with is going to be a permanent one.”
