Steel barriers on New Orleans’s Bourbon Street had been malfunctioning and bollards on the popular thoroughfare were down for repair ahead of a deadly attack early Wednesday morning, police said.
Police had reinforced the area, but a truck was able to get around the additional security and drive into the crowds on Bourbon Street shortly after the city rang in the new year, killing 10 people and injuring dozens more.
“This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target. We did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
The steel barriers, which had been installed in the wake of a similar driving attack in Nice, France, in 2016, had been malfunctioning, prompting concerns they could get stuck and potentially block ambulances and people from getting in and out.
“We knew these were malfunctioning. So we did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it,” Kirkpatrick added.
Bollards installed on Bourbon Street were also being replaced ahead of the Super Bowl, which the city is set to host next month, and were not up at the time of the attack.
“We have been aware of the bollard situation for a long time,” Kirkpatrick said. “We did indeed harden those target areas where the bollards are — we had patrol cars out there as a hard target — as well as with barriers.”
The driver behind the attack, who has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was killed in a shootout with police. An ISIS flag, weapons and a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) were found in the truck he was driving. More potential IEDs were found in the French Quarter.
The FBI said they are investigating whether Jabbar had any associations or affiliations with terrorist organizations and do not believe he acted alone.
