NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As members of the National Guard move into New Orleans to help with security measures ahead of New Year’s celebrations, city officials are still looking for permanent security solutions nearly a year after a truck attack on Bourbon Street left 14 dead.
The rampage, in which a man drove around a police roadblock in the early hours of January 1, exposed security vulnerabilities around a famous street full of outdoor bars, brass bands playing on cobblestone corners and a steady stream of cocktail-toting partygoers.
While Louisiana officials have said the tourist site is safe as they implement additional measures to curb potential threats ahead of the attack’s anniversary, the families of the dead victims say not enough has been done to ensure similar tragedies don’t happen again.
Searching for answers
The attack occurred when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck down Bourbon Street, plowing into crowds celebrating New Year’s Eve, killing 14 people and injuring dozens of others. Police shot and killed Jabbar, a US citizen and Army veteran who had proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group on social media.
In the wake of this attack, city officials, state agencies and law firms representing the victims’ families have launched investigations into whether the attack could have been prevented. The investigations focused on the road bollard system of steel columns designed to block cars from entering the road. The bollards were being replaced at the time.
Among the victims was Nikyra Dedeaux, an 18-year-old young woman about to start college who was in Triq Bourbon with friends. Her mother, Melissa Dedeaux, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that while many will ring in 2026 with fireworks and joy, she will be sad. She was haunted by her daughter’s last moments, captured in a graphic video that circulated on social media.
“I’m a parent who had to wake up, go into my Facebook account and see the last days of my daughter – the last time of my daughter. I didn’t get to see her on Bourbon the night it happened. I saw her on video,” he told the AP.
“I didn’t see any security,” Dedeaux said. “I saw that my daughter could still be here.”
It proposes permanent solutions
Questions still surround the road barricade system, which is a combination of bollards, strategically parked police vehicles and 32 large steel barriers that officers push into place each night to form pedestrian zones.
“They are not meant to be utilized in the way that they are,” said Samuel Palumbo, the Captain of the New Orleans Police Department of the 8th District, about the barriers that can withstand only low-speed collisions. He emphasized to the New Orleans Governmental Affairs Committee this month that the system is a “temporary solution to a permanent problem.”
“We have to learn from what happened,” Morris Bart, whose law firm is representing the victims and their families, told reporters Tuesday. “It’s kind of ridiculous… that a year after this tragedy nothing has been done to resolve this situation.”
Palumbo urged the city to install permanent safety gates that can withstand crashes up to 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour). The committee chose to hold the vote until the incoming Mayor Helena Moreno takes office in January.
A consulting firm, hired by the city to conduct a safety assessment, made another suggestion: Make Bourbon Street a pedestrian-only zone.
While much of the street is restricted to pedestrians at night, the recommendation – which the families of the victims supported – was largely ignored after French Quarter residents and business owners raised concerns about access to their homes and businesses.
Increased security for the upcoming celebrations
As the city prepares for the 24/2003 holiday, President Donald Trump authorized the deployment of 350 members of the National Guard, who were arriving Tuesday to provide enhanced security for the French Quarter.
The troop will remain throughout the Carnival season, when tourists descend on the Big Easy to take part in costumed celebrations and parades that wind through the city’s streets before ending with Mardi Gras in mid-February.
Republicans and Democrats supported the additional resources. Mayor-elect Moreno said she appreciates the presence of the troops and that it increases the “visibility of security assets during major events.”
Longtime French Quarter worker Miguel Thornton said he was happy to see armed troops a year after the attack.
“A lot of the service industry professionals that were out here were affected – they saw the carnage, they had to walk over the bodies – so people definitely changed,” Thornton said. “As far as the National Guard, they’ve been here before. Honestly, they’re welcome.”
We remember in 2025
Louisiana has a famous Cajun French phrase, “Laissez les bon temps rouler,” or “Let the good times roll.” In New Orleans, a city heavily dependent on tourism, the show always goes on in the entertainment district — even in the face of tragedy.
After the Bourbon Street attack, the strip was closed as emergency crews tended to the injured, bodies were removed and blood was washed from the streets. By the next day, before all the victims had even been identified by the coroner, the road was reopened. Within months, handwritten tributes at the site of the attack had been painted over.
As the anniversary approaches, tourists once again flock to Bourbon Street for New Year’s Eve celebrations. This time, suspended above them are hundreds of handmade flags honoring the victims.
Buck Harley, who runs a Bourbon Street cigar shop, said he had to explain the memorial to patrons.
“It seems that as a society we forget. And I don’t think it’s because of a lack of empathy but because there is another great story to take its place,” said Harley. “I have to tell the tourists what the flags are for up there, because they are already forgotten.”