The network's coverage of a jubilant New Year's celebration turned to tragedy early this morning, with special reports of massive casualties after a car traveling at high speed struck revelers along Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Authorities said at least 10 people were killed and more than 30 others were injured. The FBI said the suspect is now dead. Authorities previously said the suspect opened fire on the officers.
Federal law enforcement authorities are investigating the incident as a “terrorist act,” according to an FBI statement.
At approximately 3:15 a.m. ET, a man drove a pickup truck on Bourbon Street “at a very rapid pace, and this was very intentional conduct,” the New Orleans Police Department said. Anne Kirkpatrick. “This guy was trying to run over as many people as possible. This was not a DUI case. This is much more complex and serious based on the information we have now.”
She said that the driver crossed the police barriers, and that he was “intent on causing the massacre and the damage he caused.”
Kirkpatrick said the perpetrator fired at New Orleans officers “from his car when he crashed his car.” She added that two officers were shot and are in stable condition.
She said that more than 300 officers were deployed in the area last night.
President Joe Biden was briefed this morning on the news, and the White House has been in contact with Cantrell to offer support. Kirkpatrick said the FBI would handle the investigation.
There was some confusion earlier, with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell calling the incident a “terrorist attack” to reporters, but Alethea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's New Orleans field office, appears to reject that claim.
The FBI said it was investigating at least one improvised explosive device at the scene, Duncan said.
The incident occurred just hours before the start of the Sugar Bowl at the city's Superdome.
All broadcast networks turned to special reporting alongside cable news coverage, pushing lighter segments from morning programming.
On NBC News, witness Jimmy Cothran described seeing eight bodies being “slipped up,” while he and others were locked in a nightclub. One of the men had fatigue marks on his back and stomach.
The incident was quickly likened to a car attack on a Christmas market last month in Magdeburg, Germany. A suspect, a psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric, has been arrested, but Germany's interior minister said this week they could not jump to conclusions about the motive, according to Reuters.
More to come.
