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Ten people were killed and 35 injured after the driver of a pickup truck struck a crowd on New Orleans historic Bourbon Street early Wednesday, the city’s police superintendent said.
The suspect was killed after a firefight with police, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press.
The ramming took place as a large crowd gathered to celebrate the new year in the city’s French Quarter, around 3:15 a.m. local time.
Police Supt. Anne Kirkpatrick said a man in the truck drove down Bourbon Street “at a very fast pace,” and that he was “trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. It was not a DUI situation.”
“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did,” she told reporters.
A majority of the victims were “locals versus tourists,” she said.
Kirkpatrick said the man “fired on our officers from his vehicle” after he crashed. She said two police officers at the scene were shot and are in stable condition.
NOLA Ready, the city’s emergency preparedness agency, said the injured were taken to five local hospitals.
The FBI is now leading the investigation, Kirkpatrick said.
Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said officials were investigating the discovery of at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.
The incident came hours before the kickoff of the Allstate Sugar Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held in the city’s Caesars Superdome, with thousands expected to be in attendance.