Vehicle plows into crowd on Bourbon St., with 14 fatalities

[Bill]

Yeah, a couple others on the news brought that up but not the date! Whoa. Holy crap.

I remember coming home from school and watching that entire story unfolding nonstop on TV. To add to my family's anxiousness, my uncle was a New Orleans policeman who was on duty at the time. That whole scene atop the Howard Johnson's rooftop was very surreal to this young boy trying to make sense of it all.

 

[DaveXA]

If it was an actual ISIS attack, why wouldn't they have waited until the superbowl crowd?

Security would be much higher and sometimes they just look for whatever opportunity is there. Or maybe it's simply something snapped with this guy and he just decided he wasn't gonna wait any longer.

Ultimately, no one knows until the facts become known.

 

[Madmarsha]

That’s the frustrating thing about these events- we all want to find the logical answers to insanely irrational actions

But I did have similar questions- like hasn’t isis been fairly low-key lately and then why NO at 3am of all times/places?

I mean, I still want to know why but not because I'm looking for it to make sense. But there is still a "reason" in their head or they wouldn't do it. It may be a morbid curiosity but I think that's why wackos like me love true crime channels.

 

[brandon8283]

There's also definitely a certain demographic that likes to make premature assumptions to reach convenient conclusions in order to demonize those they dislike or disagree with.

Yep. Turns out it was the other demographic with a penchant for pickup trucks with flags hanging flying from the back.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Anyone hear about this...?

 

[DaveXA]

How many James Micheal Smiths can there be in the world? Sounds commonplace to us but the US is only 300 million people. In a place with over a billion people, it could be a common name. Who knows how many Jabbars there are, I dont.

I mean, we all know Kareem Abdul Jabbar. At least those somewhat familiar with the NBA.

 

[El Caliente]

Wow. I mean, I was 10 and not living here and even though it doesn't get brought up a lot, obviously something like this does bring it back up. My husband's told me a little as he pointed out the hotel the first time I was here and I think I've seen the local news report on it some. In this day and age, would that have been a story this huge?

I know of the Mark Essex HoJo shooting because my dad brings it up all the time. That day he was a couple of blocks away eating at Panchos on Gravier St.

 

[longtime lurker]

 

[El Caliente]

Anyone hear about this...?

Yes, I saw it was covered in WVUE this morning, but they hadn’t tied the two together.

 

[Dallas_Saint73]

Wow. I mean, I was 10 and not living here and even though it doesn't get brought up a lot, obviously something like this does bring it back up. My husband's told me a little as he pointed out the hotel the first time I was here and I think I've seen the local news report on it some. In this day and age, would that have been a story this huge?

I was born in Jan '73, shortly after this event, however talking to my dad over the years and just looking up more info about the mass shooting, it was widely circulated national news for sure.

The whole situation was nuts. He started out with attacking the NOPD substation in the Quarter I think. Then carried out random shootings up until Jan 7 where he set fires inside the HoJo downtown and started killing innocent people. Once police arrived on scene, he fired as a sniper killing police. At some point he held-up in the rooftop stairwell area. Police actually borrower a Huey helicopter to try and shoot the guy, but that didn't work. At some point, the police just rushed the shooter with some being shot and eventually killed the guy. They shot him something like 100 or so times.

 

[Dallas_Saint73]

I remember coming home from school and watching that entire story unfolding nonstop on TV. To add to my family's anxiousness, my uncle was a New Orleans policeman who was on duty at the time. That whole scene atop the Howard Johnson's rooftop was very surreal to this young boy trying to make sense of it all.

My father and your uncle likely knew each other.

 

[DaveXA]

Yeah, a couple others on the news brought that up but not the date! Whoa. Holy crap.

Well, technically this happened on 1/1/25. But close enough, yeah.

 

[Madmarsha]

Or maybe it's simply something snapped with this guy and he just decided he wasn't gonna wait any longer.

This is what I'm leaning towards. I mean, I guess unless they find others involved, which they speculated about earlier but I haven't heard anything more lately.

 

[Dallas_Saint73]

I know of the Mark Essex HoJo shooting because my dad brings it up all the time. That day he was a couple of blocks away eating at Panchos on Gravier St.

It was such a crazy event when you look back on it. I don't think anything rivaled it at the time.