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At Least 10 Killed After Truck Driver Slams into New Orleans Crowd; Sugar Bowl Issues Statement Following New Orleans Attack; Federal Law Enforcement Official: Suspect is Dead. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 01, 2025 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[09:00:32]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. And we want to welcome our viewers here at home and watching around the world.

We begin with breaking news out of New Orleans. As a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on the famed Bourbon Street early this morning. Police say at least 10 people were killed and at least 35 are injured. And it happened just after 3:00 a.m. local time. There were revelers out celebrating the New Year. At that time, it was packed and according to the New Orleans police chief, the suspect was just hell bent on causing carnage.

She says that the driver then shot two police officers, a federal law enforcement officials -- a federal law enforcement official, I should say, says that that suspect is dead.

And we've been speaking to witnesses. One witness described seeing bodies on the street and a lot of people getting first aid. Take a listen to the emergency radio call.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Communications to Engine 29 and all units heading towards Canal and Bourbon, (inaudible) responding to a mass casualty incident. A vehicle ran into a crowd of people. There's multiple injuries. Multiple casualties. They need you at Canal and Bourbon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Ryan Young and Paula Reid are following the story for us.

Ryan, first to you. What more do we know about this investigation?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know it's developing at this point. Our Evan Perez was able to confirm that suspect is dead. I've been talking to some local folks on the ground there who have been telling me this is an evolving situation.

In fact, right now there is a perimeter set up around that suspect's truck. So they're trying to figure out exactly where he came from. But it was around 3:15 this morning where police say that this suspect took an F-150 and started trying to intentionally hit people who were out there.

We know 10 people are dead, more than 30 injured. And as you can imagine, we do have some new video in to CNN that is very tough to look at. We have blurred some of the images here, but you can see some of the carnage that was left behind. Obviously, some of this video is spreading over the Internet with bodies laying out there, and you can just feel for the people who were involved in this.

At some point, that suspect did then start shooting at officers. Two officers were shot. We're told they are in stable condition.

Outside of that, now we start building from the investigative points, just in terms of trying to figure out why the suspect targeted this area.

But take a listen to this eyewitness talk about what was going on.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dude came through with a truck and hit about four people and shot about four people. It was about eight --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You say, you saw him got out and shoot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he was in a car. He didn't get out. He already hit him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Now we know the Sugar Bowl was played later on tonight. There's tons of tourists in town. You have the New Year's celebration you put on top of that. This is the French Quarter. They did find IEDs. So there -- there have been several clearing signs as they were -- been trying to do the improvised explosives. They put them in the bomb containment center and then tried to blow them up on -- on scene there.

But at the same time, you've had people who could not return back to their hotels, people questioning, what should they do next? They've shutting down several streets around the area as this investigation continues. We know there's a massive presence of officers down there as they start this investigation.

But again, it was 3:15 this morning when this truck went around barricades and started to try to drive over people. So many questions at this point as we continue to talk to law enforcement. There will be another 11:00 news conference. But we should take a listen to the chief who gave us this information a little earlier this morning. Take a listen.

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SUPT. ANNE KIRKPATRICK, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: It did involve a man driving a pickup truck down Bourbon Street at a very fast pace, and it was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Superintendent Kirkpatrick couldn't even get to the hospital yet to talk to her officers. She was leaving that news conference to go talk to the officers who had been shot after this.

Right now, we're not sure exactly how this ended with the suspect, so hopefully we'll get those new details. And Pam, I'll send it back to you.

BROWN: All right, Ryan, stay with us.

[09:05:00]

Paula, to bring you in. What more do we know about the suspect and the vehicle used in this?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDET: Well, so far, we don't know a lot of information. We've been in touch with federal law enforcement sources.

As Ryan noted, our colleague Evan Perez is told by one law enforcement official that the suspect is dead. And indications are, though, that this suspect acted intentionally. According to this federal law enforcement official.

And that is something that local officials actually indicated earlier in their initial press conference. They said that the driver's actions were, quote, "very intentional."

Now, we know that the FBI and local officials are conducting searches of the vehicle as they seek to learn more about a potential motive here.

We just got word, Pamela, that the attorney general, Merrick Garland, has been briefed on the situation, and the FBI is obviously investigating.

Now as part of that investigation, they are looking at possible explosive devices used at the scene. As they said in the briefing earlier, there were improvised explosive devices that were found. And they're working to confirm if they were viable devices or not. So this is a quickly evolving investigation and requires cooperation between federal authorities and those on the ground to determine exactly why this happened.

BROWN: And, Paula, I know that you're well versed in this as a -- as a lawyer and have covered the Justice Department for a while. I think people found it confusing when you had the mayor come out essentially and say, this is an act of terrorism. And then the FBI come out right, right, right off the bat and say, this is not an act of terrorism. Help us understand the discrepancy there and why that that might be.

REID: Yeah, I think it's a little confusing. Holiday conflicting messaging here. But this is not good to come out and give these kind of confusing messages. People need to understand, especially at the federal level, that terrorism actually has a legal definition and it's much more narrow than people realize, because there were some concerns that if you label certain acts terrorism or if you use that too broadly, it could conflict with some constitutional rights and particularly the First Amendment right.

Again, it's very confusing. It's sort of an esoteric argument. But when people think of terrorism, they think of something like this. But when it comes to the legal definition, this is why you don't see a lot of cases charged as quote, unquote, "terrorism." They're charged with, you know, using an explosive device. They're charged with other crimes because that's what is on the books. Those are the laws on the books.

So I think the legal definitions, particularly the differences between what you might see at a local level versus the federal level. That's why there is this confusion over whether or not this was terrorism. I think most people would agree that this was terrorizing. But when it comes to the technical, legal -- legalities, that's I think, why we're getting these conflicting messages about whether this was quote, unquote, "terrorism."

BROWN: Right. And what is the concern ahead of the Sugar Bowl tonight?

REID: What is this? Look, I'm the last person to report publicly on sports, but I think that this is going to be on the minds of everyone there. That is a massive event. There's always a massive security operation for anything that happens in a large stadium in this country or abroad, be it a concert, be it a sporting event and something like this. There's clearly going to be heightened, heightened concern and likely heightened precautions to try to prevent anything like this from happening again. Though it does appear, the signals that we're getting from law enforcement, they don't appear to be indicating that this is part of a wider plot.

BROWN: All right. Thank you so much, Paula Reid, Ryan Young, we appreciate it. And let's bring in CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem and retired FBI Special Agent Bobby Chacon.

Bobby, to start with you, we were just talking about this with Paula, that the New Orleans mayor is calling this a terrorist attack. An FBI agent told reporters that it wasn't. That there's -- so there's obviously this messaging issue here. But bottom line, this is an act that caused terror in New Orleans among these revelers.

BOBBY CHACON, FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Yes. And I think what Paula highlights is that we don't have a comprehensive domestic terrorism law. And that's why the charges at the local level and as a lawyer myself, I've lectured on this.

The charges themselves have to be kind of piecemealed together. And a lot of us call for a comprehensive domestic terrorism law, as we have on the international terrorism side, but we just don't have it on the domestic terrorism side. So it's really kind of a like she -- like Paula said, an esoteric legal -- legal argument.

But certainly, the SAC of the FBI could have been more clear and said, look, we don't know if this is terrorism yet.

BROWN: Yeah.

CHACON: We are looking into it instead of declaring it not a terrorism event, in contradiction of the police chief who just said it was. So I think they need to get on the same page. The first presser wasn't that great. Hopefully the second one coming up in a little while. They'll get on the same page. There is no problem.

Legally, as a lawyer, I can tell her that that there's no problem with saying we're looking into whether it's a terrorist event or not, especially early hours. Everybody would understand that kind of language.

And I think that the -- the legal argument of whether it's going to meet the legal standards of the charges, that's not what people need to hear and not what people need to know about at this point. The public needs to be confident in the fact that the FBI is working with its local partners to get to the bottom of this, to see whether it was a terrorist attack and how it's going to be charged later on is not -- is of great concern.

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BROWN: Right. I mean, I've sadly covered too many tragedies like this. And it struck me because normally you don't come right out of the gate and label it one terrorist attack or not.

Juliette, you know, you say we're looking into all possibilities because it's so early --

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah.

BROWN: -- you don't really know. And there were these explosive devices. The suspect --

KAYYEM: Right.

BROWN: -- shot at police, hit two police officers. 10 people are killed. More than 30 in the hospital. I mean, this is horrific. Juliette, how do you see this?

KAYYEM: Yeah, I just think the mayor made a mistake. Let's just, you know, in some ways, move on. It has to be clarified. I do not think she should have come out. You actually saw the -- the people behind her sort of flinch. She was speaking as a politician and as someone who governs the city that this was terrorizing. It was terrible. It was terror for those there.

But we are now in the investigation and prosecution stage. Look, we are you know, Evan is reporting that -- that -- that the suspect is dead. We don't know what kind of case follows. So -- so putting that aside and we'll just put that aside. These things should be tighter, that it wasn't, it's you know, its early in the morning. It's -- it's New Year's Eve. We understand that.

Now focusing on the future. One is intent. That is going to matter. It's going to matter to the families. It's going to matter if he had any accomplices. This looks -- we don't know what the IED devices are. Is there a Federal Nexus that can go forward?

The second is a big event tonight. The Sugar Bowl is huge. Lots of people will be watching. My personal assessment, doing lots of sports security is it goes on. This is a -- this -- this -- it should go on. The Police Department has lots of resources to draw on. It can protect the investigation and also draw on other local and state resources to protect people going to the Bowl.

But I -- I -- that this is the way that big cities have to work. Unfortunately, you want to provide what might even be security theater at this stage. Lots and lots of -- of law enforcement presence to make the city and people attending understand that they are safe. To stop anyone who might want to copycat at this stage. And then you let the investigation, and the mourning continue simultaneously.

It's just the nature of how these things happen is that you have both these horrible incidences, and then you have to prepare for the next big event. And this is what we've seen in prior instances as well.

BROWN: And Bobby, help us better understand why the FBA -- FBI is taking over this investigation.

CHACON: Well, because, I mean, we have the resources and possibly the charges we have. You know, we have, as Paula said earlier, we have these different federal charges that can be brought in -- in things like this. And then, of course, we bring in the resources. We bring in the bomb technicians, the bomb robots, you know, and the manpower. We can throw manpower a lot of -- a lot of manpower downrange really quickly.

And we -- and quite frankly, we -- we've been in charge of or involved in security at special events. I myself was at several Olympic games. I was at the Greece Olympics for a year consulting with the Greek authorities. I was at the Salt Lake City Olympics working in counterterrorism there. And so, we have that kind of background in terrorism and counterterrorism at big special events.

And so, the FBI comes in to see if there are resources that we can dedicate. And if there's manpower, we can dedicate. And also, the assistant -- the U.S. Attorney's Office is probably working with the local prosecutors to see what types of charges can be brought.

And so everybody should be working together. Thats the bottom line. Thats what should be put out at these press conferences. We'll sort out who gets charged at what level later. Right now, it's all about resources downrange. It's all about manpower. What we can do to investigate this as quickly as thoroughly as we can and make the crowd safer for tonight. Those are the two main areas that we should be concentrating on.

BROWN: All right, Bobby, Juliette, thank you so much. We'll see you next hour.

And we're continuing to follow this breaking news out of New Orleans. At least 10 dead, dozens more injured when this truck slammed into a crowd on Bourbon Street. We're going to have more after the break.

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[09:19:04]

BROWN: And back to our breaking news out of New Orleans. Police say, a man intentionally rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street celebrating New Year's early this morning. And just hours, the Sugar Bowl will be played there. And we just got a statement actually from them.

Let's go straight to CNN's Andy Scholes. Andy, there's the statement from the Sugar Bowl. What are they saying?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, obviously, this is the last thing they obviously wanted to happen on the day where they play such, such a big event there in New Orleans. The Sugar Bowl always one of the biggest Bowl games every single year there in New Orleans in the French Quarter.

And this incident happened, you know, just a mile away from the stadium where the game is to be played. But the Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley put out a statement just a few moments ago saying, "The Sugar Bowl Committee is devastated by the terrible events from early this morning. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. We are in ongoing discussions with authorities on the local, state, and federal levels and will communicate further details as they become available."

[09:20:00]

Now, the Sugar Bowl is the night game, Pam. It's between Notre Dame and Georgia. It's 8:45 p.m. Eastern kickoff. So as you can imagine, you know, there's thousands of Notre Dame and Georgia fans, you know, in the city to celebrate the New Year, go to the game. You know, I've been to the Sugar Bowl many times.

I mean, it's just packed with fans as -- as well as many other people just there to celebrate the New Year. So this -- this incident happening at this time is just, you know, obviously just horrible, horrible for everyone involved. But, you know, we'll see the game. You know, like I said, it's 8:45 p.m. tonight. And, obviously this was supposed to be a big day for football with three playoff games on the schedule, Pam. But, you know, it's definitely being marred by this incident now.

BROWN: It certainly overshadowing it. It's just so, so sad. All of it. Andy Scholes, thank you.

So we have this massive sporting event tonight. The Sugar Bowl, as Andy just said, is set for 8:45 p.m. Eastern. And that's, you know, complicated by the fact that there is this mass casualty event, 10 dead, more than 30 injured in what police are saying is an intentional act meant to create carnage and damage to lives.

CNN's Tom Foreman joins us now. Tom, you have a long history with New Orleans. You know this city so well. You live there. Help us understand the impact of this and how the city is going to handle this. You know, investigating and this mass casualty and also making sure the Sugar Bowl is safe.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this really is hitting the heart of New Orleans in so many ways. The French Quarter, for one thing. Also, the business of hospitality. That's what New Orleans is all about. Andy just mentioned a moment ago, the Superdome, I believe, for -- for seating for indoor football is somewhere around 75,000 people. But that's not the only crowd there.

In my experience with Sugar Bowls and Super Bowls, Super Bowl will also be there this year fairly soon and Mardi Gras coming up very soon. And Jazz Fest after that.

This town handles massive, massive crowds, much bigger than most people are aware of. For a town this size, Mardi Gras doubles the size of the metro area basically. That's how many people come in. A million people or so.

Police are very used to handling big crowds. They have made big efforts over the years, Pam, to prevent precisely the sort of event. There was a drunk driver back in 2017, I think, that ran into one of the parade crowds and injured a bunch of people, didn't kill anybody. But back then, we really saw a step up at Mardi Gras of putting many more barricades and big dump trucks and things in the way to stop a car from driving in.

That's why it's very interesting that the mayor said, and the officials were saying that, that there was a concerted effort by this driver, according to them, to get around the barricade or any blockage there to head down the street really. And bear in mind, this is a 300- year-old street.

Bourbon Street is, for many people, synonymous with New Orleans. They're like, this is what you go to New Orleans for. If you're a local there, you know how important it is to the identity of the street cutting through the -- the famed and beautiful French Quarter.

And I was noting earlier, it's important to remember the French Quarter isn't just a tourist attraction. This isn't a resort somewhere. This is a neighborhood. There are many people who live here. So this isn't just about some monetary impact or some tourist attraction impact.

BROWN: Right.

FOREMAN: These are family and friends who live in this area. So that's when you ask about the impact of it. This is the heart and soul of New Orleans that has been hit this day.

BROWN: It certainly is. And you can imagine any one of us would want to spend our New Year's Eve on Bourbon Street -- FOREMAN: Oh, sure. Yeah.

BROWN: -- in New Orleans, right? I mean, that's the epicenter of the city's nightlife. What is it typically like over New Year's? How crowded is it?

FOREMAN: Oh, my goodness, Bourbon Street, actually, for those of us who have lived there, Bourbon Street is something that we -- we -- we -- it's not that you avoid it on the -- on the big events, but you're careful about it because it can be as packed as a rock concert from one end to the other. I've been on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, where you can just barely move. You are boxed in on all sides.

But I will point out, the police have always had a big presence in that and do a truly masterful job of handling giant crowds. My almost certainty is the reason the police were there to respond when this started happening is because the police were there already. They're always there trying to deal with the big crowds.

And I must say, I was looking at this. This is -- this is a pickup truck. This is going to be a 4000 to 5000-pound vehicle that turned, you know, onto the street from where I'm going to guess from Canal Street, because it was on that end. And Canal Street tends to be open because it has to be. It's a main artery for downtown. Bourbon Street tends to be closed specifically to event and to avoid this sort of thing. But -- but this is a -- yeah, tons and tons of people there.

[09:25:00]

They had a parade yesterday for the Sugar Bowl. And there will be watch parties and people gathering in bars and hotels all over town, typically on Sugar Bowl night. It is a very, very big event that the town very much enjoys. And again, it's just a -- a -- a predecessor to what's going to happen when Mardi Gras comes up, even bigger.

BROWN: Yeah.

FOREMAN: Jazz fest comes up even bigger. Those are big events and Super Bowl coming up even bigger. These are huge events. So not only is it this moment in this time, but the town has to be looking and saying, OK, now what do we do?

You can't help but be uneasy about what lies ahead when something like this happens, even if it proves to be simply this one event, one attacker in this case, it still affects your sense of safety. Think -- think about how New York has reacted when Times Square has been attacked by someone. There's no reason to necessarily think it's going to happen again next month, but you worry about it. And that's true of every town out there.

BROWN: Yeah. And you mentioned that 2017 attack where that drunk driver. So a different situation. The drunk driver plowed into the Mardi Gras crowd in New Orleans. And -- and given all that happened after that, with the security measures taken, you know, are you surprised this could happen or is this just a situation when you have someone with a pickup truck and an intent to cause carnage there? You know, there's not --

FOREMAN: I'm not -- I'm not surprised it can happen, Pam, because we've seen this sort of thing. As -- as the authorities have already noted, when you have someone very determined to do something like this. And clearly -- clearly heedless of what happens to their own life in it. It's hard to stop them.

I mean, unless you were to put up like such -- such extraordinary barricades that they simply could not be breached. But then people find other ways to do such a thing. It's hard to ultimately stop something like this. The fact that this seems to have happened in what looks like about a block or so, I'm not sure. We don't know yet exactly how far in this goes. The actual attack.

BROWN: Yeah.

FOREMAN: But -- but that in itself, you know, you have to wonder, did this truck encounter one of the next layers of barricades as you go down Bourbon Street. Because there are many of them. It's not just one outer perimeter and that's it. So -- so you have to wonder if part of the system did work to keep this truck from going. Because I'll tell you, Pam, if this truck had been able to just keep going all the way down Bourbon Street, blocks and blocks and blocks and blocks absolutely filled with people.

Yeah, at 3:15 in the morning, because it's New Orleans. It's a town that is alive and awake and going all the time. So the fact that it stopped where it did perhaps saved many, many, many more lives, as terrible as this is.

BROWN: I think that's a really important point, Tom. Thank you for coming on, --

FOREMAN: You're welcome, Pam.

BROWN: -- sharing your experience there in the city.

We'll continue to follow this breaking news out of New Orleans. At least 10 dead, dozens more injured when a truck slammed into a crowd on Bourbon Street. We're going to have more after the break.

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