The city of New Orleans and two contractors were sued on Thursday by six people who were hurt and the father of a man who was killed in the New Year’s truck attack. They say they failed to protect revelers from an Army veteran who sped past a police blockade and raced down Bourbon Street, killing 14 and hurting at least 30.
According to the lawsuit filed in Orleans Parish Civil District Court by Matthew Hemmer with the Morris Bart Law Firm, Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s attack was tragic but could have been avoided. The six victims had broken bones and were in physical and mental pain, and Brandon Taylor was killed. A shootout with cops killed Jabbar.
Alexis Windham, whose foot was hurt by a fall and a gunshot, is one of the plaintiffs. Other claimants are Corian Evans, Jalen Lilly, Justin Brown, Shara Frison, and Gregory Townsend, who all had broken bones and other injuries. Joseph Taylor, Brandon Taylor’s dad, joined them. The people from Alabama are Windham, Evans, Lilly, and Brown. The people from Missouri are Frison and Townsend.
Taylor was 43 years old and worked as a cook in a restaurant near New Orleans. He loved music, especially rap. The person he was going to marry was with him when he was killed, and so is his father.
People tried to get the City of New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell, and contractors Mott MacDonald and Hard Rock Construction to speak on the lawsuit by email and phone, but they did not answer right away.
The claim said that after 2016, when 86 people were killed in Nice, France, on Bastille Day, the number of cars driving into crowds started going up. New Orleans got advice on how likely it was that this kind of attack would happen in the French Quarter and spent $40 million on projects to make the city safer. For example, they bought portable bollards, which are protective columns meant to block vehicle traffic, to keep cars off of Bourbon Street.
The claim said that the bollards were often turned off when the tracks they move on got clogged with fluids like beads, drink containers, rain, and more. A 2019 study from the New York company Interfor International said that a car attack could happen in the French Quarter. It also said that “the current bollard system on Bourbon Street does not appear to work” and that it should be fixed right away.
A design firm called Mott MacDonald was hired for road projects in April 2024. Their report mentioned that a Ford F-150 truck could turn onto Bourbon Street, which is what happened on New Year’s Day. However, the lawsuit said that the company’s plan to replace bollards did not include fixed bollards in the French Quarter.
The work to improve safety started in November, but not on Canal Street until December 19. The attack happened on January 1, while the work was still going on, the suit said. Police say Jabbar drove an F-150 pickup truck onto a sidewalk to get around a police car that was blocking the entrance to Bourbon Street from Canal Street.
The lawsuit said that the building site did not have the right barriers up, whether they were temporary or permanent. “Because of this, the intersection looked like an easy target.” After the first strike, Mr. Jabbar was able to go down Bourbon Street about three blocks.
The suit said that the companies and the city did not put in place a good system to stop such a threat.
Two other law companies said on Wednesday that they are investigating the attack on their own because “officials were tragically aware and did not protect the public.” They are representing almost twenty victims of the attack.
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