section_path: Attack
section_name: Attack
paragraph_text: Attack
  
  After exiting traffic, the perpetrator, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, drove the truck onto the sidewalk to bypass a police SUV and other barricades that had been placed to protect Bourbon Street. Eyewitnesses reported that steel barricades installed to prevent vehicular access were not raised before the attack, though New Orleans Police Department superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said that police were aware they malfunctioned sometimes and instead used other barricades. Jabbar drove into people along a three-block stretch between Canal and Conti streets, at relatively high speed. Kirkpatrick stated the suspect was "trying to run over as many people as he possibly could".
  
  After crashing into an aerial work platform, Jabbar exited the truck and began shooting a gun. New Orleans police officers returned fire and killed Jabbar in the shootout by shooting him four times in the torso. Jabbar wounded two police officers in the gunfight.
  
  Jabbar wore body armor during the attack. Police officers recovered a.308 AR-10 rifle and Glock handgun. The white Ford F-150 Lightning light-duty truck used in the attack had been rented using Turo, and had been observed in Humble, Texas, on the morning before the attack. Later that day, the truck was observed in Baytown, Texas, heading east on Interstate 10 toward New Orleans. The truck was registered to a Houston man. There was an Islamic State (ISIS) flag in the vehicle, and on 9 January 2025 newspaper Al-Naba claimed responsibility for the attack.
  
  The New Orleans PD, along with Mayor Cantrell, described the incident as a terrorist attack. Jason Williams, the district attorney for Orleans Parish, said that "driving a vehicle into a crowd is not particularly a thing that any law enforcement agency can be prepared for".
  
  The city had previously deployed permanent vehicle barriers known as bollards to stop cars from entering the French Quarter, but they had frequently malfunctioned. The bollards were removed and were being replaced in advance of the upcoming Sugar Bowl when the attack occurred. The city still had the temporary Archer vehicle barriers acquired back in 2017, but for reasons that remain unclear, did not deploy them until after the attack had already occurred. Kirkpatrick was unaware that the city had them until after the attack.