The FBI said that authorities were investigating the bloodshed as an act of terrorism. Police said the driver went around barricades and then sped down Bourbon Street “trying to run over as many people as he possibly could” before crashing. The driver was declared dead after a shootout with police officers, the New Orleans police said.
According to TheWashingtonPost:
- Police said two New Orleans officers were shot and injured during the exchange of gunfire with the driver. The officers were taken to the hospital and are in stable condition, the New Orleans Police Department said.
- Anne Kirkpatrick, the New Orleans police superintendent, said the attack was deliberate. “This is not a DUI situation,” Kirkpatrick said. The driver went around barricades to drive into the crowd and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” she said.
- The FBI is the lead agency investigating the violence, officials said. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the Justice Department’s National Security Division, the U.S. attorney’s office in New Orleans and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are all taking part in the investigation.
- Authorities have not yet publicly identified the driver of the truck or described any potential motive for the violence.
