New Orleans police promise ‘hundreds of officers’ will line city streets surrounding Sugar Bowl after attack
New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick promises that “hundreds of officers” will line the city’s streets ahead of Thursday’s relocated Sugar Bowl in the latest security effort following Wednesday’s terrorist attack in the French Quarter.
“We have a staffing level at the same level, if not more, than what we were preparing for the Super Bowl,” Kirkpatrick told NBC Today.
The College Football Playoff Sugar Bowl quarterfinal between Georgia and Notre Dame was postponed a day because of an attack about a mile away from the Superdome early Wednesday, when authorities said a truck driver deliberately drove into a New Year’s Eve crowd, killing 15 killed people.
The game, originally scheduled for Wednesday at 7:45 PM CST in the 70,000-seat Superdome, was postponed to Thursday at 3 PM. The winner will advance to the Jan. 9 Orange Bowl against Penn State.
New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno told WDSU-TV earlier Wednesday, before the postponement was announced, that the security perimeter around the Superdome was “expanding to a larger area.”
“More and more police officers are coming,” she said.
Police vehicles are seen outside the Louisiana Superdome after Wednesday’s attack
The New Orleans victims occurred when Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old American citizen born and raised in Texas, rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter early on New Year’s Day. In addition to the deaths, more than thirty people were injured.
The driver was killed during a shootout with police after the attack at about 3:15 a.m. along Bourbon Street near Canal Street, the FBI said.
Seven victims have now been identified among the 15 innocent people killed in the horrific terror attack in New Orleans.
A former college football star, high school student, father of two and young mother are among the 15 victims who were tragically killed when Jabbar deliberately struck pedestrians with an ISIS flag hanging from his car.
Tiger Bech, 28, Ni’kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, Reggie Hunter, 37, Nicole Perez, 27, Matthew Tenedorio, Kareem Badawi and Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, were killed in the senseless attack in the early hours of New Year’s Day in the French Quarter .
“Public safety is of the utmost importance,” Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said during a media conference alongside federal, state and local officials, including Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “All parties agree that it is in the best interests of everyone and public safety that we postpone the game.”
The decision to postpone the match meant that many traveling fans with tickets would not be able to attend. Online ticket prices dropped to less than $25 in some cases as fans with plans to leave Thursday tried to unload them.
“We can’t get any new flights,” said Lisa Borrelli, a 34-year-old Philadelphia resident who came to New Orleans with her fiancé, a 2011 Notre Dame graduate.
Postponing the match “was absolutely the right decision,” she said. “I understand completely.”
She said they paid more than $250 per ticket and hadn’t bothered to offer them for resale yet because the prices were so low.
“Of course we’re disappointed to miss it and lose so much money on it, but in the end it doesn’t matter,” Borrelli said. “We’re fortunate that we’re doing well.”
U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, D-La., said the decision to postpone the game “was not made lightly.”
“It was done with one thing in mind: public safety – ensuring that the citizens and visitors of this great city, not just for this event, but for any event you go to in Louisiana, will be safe,” said Carter. added.
Landry said he had a message for those who are thinking, “Man, do I really want to go to the Sugar Bowl tomorrow?”
“I’ll tell you one thing: your governor will be there,” Landry said. “That’s proof, believe me, that that facility and this city are safer today than they were yesterday.”
FBI agents look at the scene where people were killed by a man driving a truck during a terrorist attack
Reggie Hunter, 37, (left). Nicole Perez, 27, (right)
Hubert Gauthreaux’s family frantically shared messages on social media that he missed in the aftermath of the attack, before revealing he was found dead in a hospital
Tiger Bech, 28, of Lafayette, Louisiana, died in the terrorist attack in New Orleans on Wednesday. He had previously played football at Princeton University (right)
Ni’kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, also lost her life in the attack
Darrell Huckaby, 72, of Athens, Georgia, also decided to return home Thursday rather than stay for the game. He was in a hotel room overlooking the corner where the attack took place. He was asleep when it happened, but when he woke up he saw pink blankets covering the bodies of the dead, and later saw them being placed in bags and loaded into trucks headed to the Orleans Parish Coroner’s office.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said. “I think most people’s first instinct this morning was that they wanted to be home. As important as football is to our Georgian culture, for a while the game didn’t really seem to matter.
“And I think there was a lot of uncertainty, and I understand it,” Huckaby said. “It took a long time for them to determine the playing time and people had to make decisions without all the information.”
He added that he would “probably eat” the $360 per ticket he paid.
Hundley said Thursday that efforts are underway to “establish a safe, efficient and fun environment” in and around the Superdome.
The Superdome was closed Wednesday morning for security screening.
Both teams spent most of the day in their hotels and held meetings in ballrooms.
Georgia’s players traveled by bus to the Superdome on Wednesday evening for a walk-through practice. As they made their way to the buses on Canal Street, fans in red and black stood eight to ten deep behind the barricades to cheer them on, holding their phones high above their heads to capture the scene.
Around that time, Notre Dame players gathered at a hotel on the banks of the Mississippi River with relatives in a ballroom where the Rose Bowl quarterfinal between Ohio State and Oregon was being shown on television.
Notre Dame offered band members the option to fly home Thursday instead of attending the game, and some chose to do so.
Shamsud Din Jabbar, 42, drove a white Ford SUV into pedestrians driving in New Orleans’ French Quarter around 3:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday
Georgia President Jere Morehead said the university confirmed a student was among those seriously injured. Morehead said the university was in contact with the student’s family.
Statements from the University of Georgia Athletic Association and Notre Dame said both schools had already counted team personnel and members of official travel parties.
The Superdome, about 20 blocks away, will also host the Super Bowl on February 9.
The first Super Bowl after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, was also held in New Orleans, and there was a huge security perimeter for that game, including street closures around the Superdome and officers – including snipers – at the tops of surrounding tall buildings. on buildings, but also on the roof of the dome itself.
“We are deeply saddened by the news of the devastating incident in New Orleans,” the NFL said in a statement.
“The NFL and the local host committee have worked with local, state and federal agencies over the past two years and have developed comprehensive safety plans,” the statement continued. “We are confident that participants will have a safe and enjoyable Super Bowl experience.”