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Bollards that normally protect pedestrians from vehicles were to be replaced as part of the city’s preparations for the Super Bowl next month. The attacker drove his pickup around a police vehicle parked to block traffic from the street he struck.
- Jan. 1, 2025, 5:05 p.m. ET
The Texas man who rammed into crowds in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year’s Day drove onto a sidewalk and around a patrol car that had been parked to block road access to Bourbon Street.
Officials confirmed during a news conference on Wednesday afternoon that security bollards designed to prevent vehicles from hitting pedestrians were not in place at the site because they were being replaced as part of the city’s preparations to host the Super Bowl next month.
Until new bollards could be installed, parked police cars and other barriers, as well as patrolling officers, were being used as safeguards.
“We did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around,” said Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick of the New Orleans Police Department. She added, “We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it.”
Capt. Lejon Roberts, the police commander who oversees the French Quarter as part of the city’s Eighth District, said that the police car had been “strategically placed” to prevent access to Bourbon Street, where the pickup slammed into New Years revelers, killing at least 10 people and injuring about 35.
Asked about how officials regarded the possibility of someone driving around the police car, Captain Roberts said, “It wasn’t something we expected to account for.”
