2:59 p.m. Update:
The Associated Press is now reporting that the New Year's Day Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame has been postponed. The decision comes after a truck plowed into a New Year’s crowd about a mile away from the New Orleans Superdome.
Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley held a brief news conference, saying that after speaking with game officials and the teams it was decided that "it's in the best interest of everybody and public safety that we postpone the game for 24 hours."
The game, originally scheduled for 7:45 p.m. Central at the 70,000-seat Superdome, has been pushed back to Thursday night, said Hundley. He added, “Public safety is paramount.” He spoke alongside federal, state and local officials. That included Gov. Jeff Landry and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
3:26 p.m. - NEW INFORMATION:
Houston Public Media is now reporting that the suspected driver is a 42-year-old man from Harris County, Texas. He is identified by the FBI as Shamsud Din Jabbar.
A Houston Police Department officer assigned to the FBI task force confirmed to Houston Public Media that a house in north Houston matches an address for Jabbar. Several officers in civilian vehicles were on the scene. The FBI says Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police officers.
***********
11:15 a.m. CST
The FBI declared itself the lead investigative agency after “an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans,” calling it an act of terrorism. According to the city’s emergency preparedness agency, known as Nola Ready, the attack killed 10 people and injured 35 others. It all began at about 3:17 a.m., in the first hours of New Year’s Day.
The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) said earlier that they were responding to a mass casualty incident at the edge of the French Quarter at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Street. And the FBI confirms that after the vehicle crashed, “the subject engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased.” An NOPD release says the two officers “were struck and injured in the exchange. Both were transported via EMS to a local hospital and were last listed in stable condition.”
At a morning news conference NOPD Superintendent Ann Kirkpatrick said the driver of the vehicle was “hellbent” on “creating the carnage and the damage that he did. “Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry called the incident a “horrific act of violence” and said he was praying for the victims.
As both the Associated Press and NPR report, Aletha Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said officials were investigating the discovery of at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.
The police department had already announced earlier this week there would be beefed up security ahead of New Year’s Day celebrations, as well as for the upcoming Allstate Sugar Bowl football game on January 1, 2025, and related events. An NOPD news release stated that the department will be “staffed at 100%, with an additional 300 officers assisting from partner law enforcement agencies.”
