play
How have Notre Dame, Georgia been preparing for Sugar Bowl? (1:49)
Laura Rutledge reports on Notre Dame and Georgia and the heightened security measures for the Sugar Bowl. (1:49)
NEW ORLEANS — As New Orleans prepares to reopen Bourbon Street to the public in the wake of the deadly New Year’s Day pickup truck attack, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said there would be an “unprecedented” law enforcement presence before the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Thursday.
At a news conference Thursday, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city would reopen Bourbon Street to the public at 3:30 p.m. ET Thursday, a half hour before No. 2 Georgia and No. 7 Notre Dame are scheduled to play in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal game at the Sugar Bowl.
The Sugar Bowl was originally scheduled to be played Wednesday night, but the game was pushed back a day after a deadly pickup truck attack on Bourbon Street killed 14 people and injured dozens more.
The FBI said Thursday that it believes the driver of a truck that drove around a police barricade and rammed into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day acted alone.
“I want to [assure] people that right now in the city of New Orleans, there’s an unprecedented amount of law enforcement resources that are being utilized to close out and to hunt down and finalize this investigation,” Landry said.
Landry said members of the Louisiana National Guard, as well as correctional officers and members of other state law enforcement divisions have been deployed to the city to help with security.
In an interview on “Today” on Thursday, New Orleans police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the city would have as much security in place for the Sugar Bowl as it was planning to use for next month’s Super Bowl.
“We are in partnership with many other partners,” Kirkpatrick said. “Both local, federal, military police, and so forth, will be here, and so we’re going to have absolutely hundreds of officers and staff lining our streets, lining Bourbon Street, lining the French Quarter. So, we are staffing up at the same level, if not more so, than we were preparing for [the] Super Bowl.”
Numerous security officers around the 70,000-seat stadium Thursday were handling dogs trained to sniff for explosive devices. They encircled cars entering the Superdome parking garage and, in some cases, sniffed bags and backpacks.
Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, said federal agents have completed their investigation of Bourbon Street and have turned the area over to the city.
Raia said the FBI believes at this point that the driver of the truck — identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas — acted alone in the attack.
“We do not assess, at this point, that anyone else is involved in this attack, except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar,” Raia said.
The attack, which also injured more than 30 people, occurred around 3:15 a.m. CT Wednesday in the French Quarter, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year’s Eve parties. The vehicle rammed into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, and after it came to a stop, Jabbar emerged from the truck and opened fire on responding officers, New Orleans police said.
Officers returned fire, striking and killing Jabbar, police said.
Raia said that the FBI located two IEDs in the French Quarter and that it obtained video footage that showed Jabbar placing coolers containing the IEDs at different locations around the French Quarter before the attack.
After placing the explosive devices, Jabbar then changed clothes, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. ABC News said the FBI is still investigating whether there were individuals Jabbar spoke to or messaged with before the early Wednesday attack, but no one was in the vicinity to help him do anything, the sources said.
Raia said the FBI had recovered three cellphones and two laptops used by the driver as part of its investigation.
“We do not believe the public is in danger around these locations,” Raia said.
City workers cleaned Bourbon Street on Thursday morning. Delivery trucks and employees of businesses in the entertainment district were allowed in the area shortly thereafter.
Kirkpatrick said additional security measures would be in place in the French Quarter on Thursday. Police said Jabbar was able to steer around police barricades to drive onto Bourbon Street. The city was undergoing a project to remove and replace bollards — barrier posts designed to stop vehicles from entering the area. They weren’t yet in place for the Sugar Bowl.
New Orleans will host Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
“Well, they were not able to be up and running, and that is because it was under repair,” Kirkpatrick said. “We were aware of this issue, and that’s why we were using patrol cars. That will be changing today. We will have much heavier equipment to harden these softer targets. The city had a multimillion-dollar package for repairing this infrastructure, but it was not complete at the time of this event last night.”
The Bulldogs and Fighting Irish are scheduled to leave their hotels for Caesars Superdome about two hours before kickoff. A Georgia official told ESPN that the Bulldogs would return to Athens, Georgia, on chartered flights after the game. The Fighting Irish were expected to leave for South Bend, Indiana, after the game as well.
The winner of Thursday’s game will play No. 6 Penn State in the CFP Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Jan. 9.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
