Safety barriers in New Orleans that were meant to protect pedestrians from vehicles but sometimes malfunctioned were removed to be replaced before a gunman drove a van into a crowd along Bourbon Street on Wednesday. in the morning, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more.
City officials said other barriers, vehicles and law enforcement officers strategically deployed on Bourbon Street failed to prevent the attacker from driving onto the sidewalk, where he crashed into pedestrians around 3:15 a.m. local time on New Year’s Day. .
New Orleans was replacing older barriers, known as bollards, before the city hosts the Super Bowl in February, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
“The bollards were not installed because they are nearing completion, with the expectation that they will be completed before the Super Bowl,” he said.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at the news conference that police were aware of the safety issue and “reinforced those target areas where the bollards were previously” with patrols and other measures.
“We had a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there and they were still moving,” he said.
“In this particular case, the terrorist simply walked around to the sidewalk,” he said.
Video of the attack appeared to show the driver turning right onto Canal Street onto Bourbon Street, stopping just short of Conti Street.
“We actually had a plan, but the terrorist defeated it,” Kirkpatrick said.
The FBI is investigating the attack, in which a gunman walked through the crowd and then exchanged gunfire with police, wounding two officers before dying, as an act of terrorism. Authorities have found possible explosive devices and believe the attacker did not act alone, the FBI said.
Asked about safety measures at a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said, “We recognize we have a problem. “Let’s fix it.”
“It’s going to be a top priority as we get closer to the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, and the solution we’re going to find is going to be permanent,” he said.
One witness, Jimmy Cothran, told NBC News that he was surprised to see that the metal barricades that normally block Bourbon Street were not deployed on New Year’s Eve. “They weren’t up, so you still had to watch your back to spot cars,” he said.
The bollards were placed on Bourbon Street several years ago to protect against an attack like the one in Nice, France, in 2016, in which more than 80 people were killed when a truck plowed into a crowd of pedestrians. But the bollards soon malfunctioned, became clogged with Mardi Gras beads, and police found them ineffective, Cantrell said at the news conference.
Hosting the Super Bowl gave the city “the opportunity to go further and delve into infrastructure improvements,” including replacing bollards, he said.
An engineer who worked on the bollard replacement project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team was not authorized to speak publicly, said there was “a mad rush to rush this job” so it could be finished in time for the Super Bowl. .
The engineer said when the bollards were originally installed several years ago, hydraulic barricades were added during construction to ensure Bourbon Street remained protected. This time, the engineer did not see those types of barriers; Instead, there were simpler ones like orange traffic drums, the engineer said.
The city’s Department of Public Works, which is overseeing the bollard replacement project, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
The city said on its website that the bollards on Bourbon Street from Canal Street to St. Ann Street would be replaced with “new removable stainless steel bollards” that could be securely closed behind each crosswalk.
Construction began in November with the removal of the old bollards and then the replacement was done in phases, the city said. It was expected to be completed in February.
New Orleans City Council Speaker Helena Moreno told WWL-TV that she and other council members believed the repairs should have been completed before the Super Bowl. Still, he said, he did not believe the bollards would have prevented the mass killing.
“This person was ready to inflict pain, death and harm on the crowds on Bourbon Street, and I think he would have tried to find any way he could,” Moreno said.
Radi Nabulsi, editor of the website UGASports.com, told NBC News that just before the New Year’s attack, around 2:30 a.m. local time, he saw a large police presence in the Bourbon Street area, as well as multiple targets. and orange plastic barricades and fences. He said he did not remember seeing the bollards he had seen in the past.
“The problem is that Bourbon Street is long and on each block there is a cross street and there is not a barricade on each of them, because the cars go from north to south, crossing Bourbon,” he said.
But Nabulsi said he “felt completely safe” at the time.
“One person, with all the security they put in, killed 10 people and injured many more, and that’s just disheartening,” he said.
Another witness told NBC affiliate WDSU that the gunman’s truck “ran over the barricade.”
