The deadly ramming attack on New Year’s revelers in New Orleans is unfortunately not the only time suspected terrorists used trucks to kill.
The Bourbon Street bloodshed comes just weeks after a Saudi Arabia-born doctor allegedly rammed a car into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on Dec. 20, killing five people, including a 9-year-old boy. More than 200 others were injured. In recent years, other car ramming incidents have unfolded during crowded events in Nice, France; Waukesha, Wisconsin; and New York City, as one ex-Trump Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official warns of the vulnerability of “soft targets.”
“Car ramming, or ‘vehicle as a weapon’ attacks, are highly effective. With this attack on the heels of the deadly events at the Christmas market in Germany, we should all be mindful while attending and enjoying mass gathering events,” Brian Harrell, a former assistant secretary at DHS under the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital. “Soft targets and crowded places will always be desirable for terrorists given the potential loss of life.”
“In the first Trump administration, we recognized that vehicle as a weapon was a true threat that needed to be mitigated,” Harrell added. “The challenge in securing public venues, or ‘soft targets,’ is that the open nature of these locations makes them vulnerable to attacks. Bad-actors target places where individuals of all backgrounds should be able to assemble safely, freely, and without fear of harm. Such violence has no place in our society.”
The FBI is investigating an “act of terrorism” Wednesday, and the White House has been briefed after authorities say a suspect rammed a truck into crowds on Bourbon Street, killing at least 10 and injuring dozens of others. A high-level source at the New Orleans Police Department confirmed to Fox News Digital the now-deceased suspect was Shamsud Din Jabbar. He was killed after opening fire on police.
Jabbar was carrying a Glock and a .308 rifle – equipped with optics and a suppressor – that had been reported stolen in New Jersey, the source said. The source added that there are at least four to five other suspects involved.
Two officers were shot. A source confirmed to Fox News Digital that law enforcement found explosive devices on Bourbon Street that are apparently viable.
TEN DEAD AND DOZENS INJURED AFTER DRIVER PLOWS CAR INTO CROWD ON BOURBON STREET, SUSPECT DEAD
An eight-block perimeter around Bourbon Street remains blocked off as the investigation continues.
An employee at the front desk of the Bourbon Orleans Hotel told Fox News Digital she drove to work around 6 a.m. but had to walk a far distance through the police barricades. Though she did not see much, she heard what sounded like at least two soft “bangs,” suspecting something had detonated.
Law enforcement officers on Bourbon Street on Jan. 1, 2025 in New Orleans. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images)
Fox News learned the vehicle used in the attack crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, in November. However, the alleged Bourbon Street attacker was not behind the wheel, meaning the vehicle changed hands at some point.
The Sugar Bowl is still expected to kick off the College Football Playoff quarterfinal game between Georgia and Notre Dame as expected in New Orleans on Wednesday night, but the dome was under lockdown for security sweeps.
Law enforcement officers from multiple agencies work the scene on Bourbon Street after at least 10 people were killed when a person allegedly drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day on Jan. 1, 2025. (Michael DeMocker/Getty Images)
As Louisiana’s popular tourist destination is still reeling from one car-ramming attack, here’s a look at others in recent years.
Germany’s interior minister on Monday cautioned that it was too soon to suspect terror in the Dec. 20 Christmas market incident.
The suspect has been identified as a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who came to Germany in 2006 and was granted refugee status 10 years later, DW reported.
LIVE UPDATES: NEW ORLEANS MAYOR DECLARES ‘TERRORIST ATTACK’ ON BOURBON STREET, FBI CONFIRMS INVESTIGATION
Though the world-famous Times Square New Year’s Eve ball-drop went off without a hitch this year, New York City experienced a car-ramming incident in 2017 in what remains the deadliest terror incident in the Big Apple since 9/11.
Police vans and ambulances at the annual Christmas market in the city center following a possible terror incident on Dec. 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, Germany. (Craig Stennett/Getty Images)
On Halloween afternoon in 2017, Sayfullo Saipov, of Uzbekistan, used a 6,000-pound truck to strike more than 20 people on the Hudson River Bike Path in Lower Manhattan. He eventually plowed into a school bus and hopped out of his truck shouting “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” according to the New York Times. An officer shot the suspect in the abdomen. Prosecutors said he killed eight people and critically injured many others, including a 14-year-old child.
A judge handed Saipov eight consecutive life sentences and 260 years in prison in May 2023 over the ISIS-inspired attack. The survivors suffered amputations, serious brain injuries, life-altering physical injuries and significant psychological trauma, prosecutors said.
Three years ago, Darrell Brooks Jr. rammed his red Ford Escape through a Christmas parade in downtown Waukesha, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee, on Nov. 21, 2021. The attack killed six people, including 8-year-old Jackson Sparks, who had been marching with his baseball team. The other victims were identified as Tamara Durand, 52; Wilhelm Hospel, 81; Jane Kulich, 52; Leanna Owen, 71; and Virginia Sorenson, 79. Four of them were part of a group that called themselves the “Dancing Grannies.” \
Sixty-two others were hurt. The following November, Brooks was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on 76 charges, including six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and 61 counts of reckless endangerment.
On July 14, 2016, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel – an alleged Islamic State sympathizer – sped a 19-ton truck through the famed boardwalk in Nice, France, where thousands gathered to watch fireworks on Bastille Day. The terror attack left 86 people dead and 450 others injured. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was killed by police, but in 2022 a French court convicted eight others of helping to organize the carnage. Their sentences ranged from two to 18 years, NPR reported.
Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-orleans-terror-attack-new-years-revelers-draws-somber-reminder-past-truck-rammings-targeting-crowds
