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Officials Hold Press Conference On Crowd Attack In New Orleans. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired January 01, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

ANNE KIRKPATRICK, SUPERINTENDENT, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: New Orleans police have proven their ability to make the city safer.

Just two years ago, we were the murder capital of America. Today, from that time two years ago, we have driven our murder rate more than 50 percent down. So we have a track record. But this is different because it's terrorism.

Now, I want to thank all of our law enforcement partners.

You're fabulous and we appreciate the partnership.

But last night, three of our officers engaged this terrorist who shot at them. Three of the officers returned fire. Those officers did not run in fear.

I liked what the mayor said this morning. New Orleans police and all law enforcement is built, we are built for dealing with evil, with things that would cause us -- others to be in fear. But instead, our officers -- and last night NOPD, particular, stood strong. They did not run. They did kill the terrorist.

We have two officers, indeed, who received gunfire. They will be OK. We have personally gone to see them.

But this is leadership for you. And I promise, as the chief of police of this fantastic city, that I will be strong and firm and fearless.

Thank you.

GOV. JEFF LANDRY (D-LA): Thank you, Chief. Thank you.

And wrapping it up, I want to just close with a couple of things. I want to thank Senator Kennedy and Congressman Carter. I want to thank again all of our law enforcement officers out there.

I want the families of the victims to know that I will be issuing an executive order that, tomorrow, when Notre Dame plays Georgia, every flag over every state building in this state is going to be at half- mast in remembrance of them.

But remembering something else, that fear in this state is a liar. And these folks right here are going to make sure that justice is served. And for the citizens out there that are saying, well, man, do I really

want to go to the Sugar Bowl tomorrow? I'll tell you one thing. Your governor is going to be there. That is proof, believe you me, that that facility in this city is safer today than it was yesterday.

And we are -- and as we come to additional events in this city, I know in speaking with Senator Kennedy and Congressman Carter and FBI, acting director, and incoming administration, that they are going to ensure that this city has the resources necessary to protect our citizens and our guests.

And so with that, we'll take some questions.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: All right, if you could, well start over here with CBS. Katie. We'll work our way across the room. If I miss you, just give me a holler. I may not see you.

Go ahead. Sir.

KATIE RICE, CORRESPONDENT, CBC NEWS: Katie Rice with CBS News.

I mean, I think this has been a really tough day for a lot of people, but at this point, we're hearing that the death toll, according to some FBI sources, has gone up to 15. Is this true?

LANDRY: That's true.

Who wants the answer? That I can tell you.

Do you have a final number?

KIRKPATRICK: We do not have a final number. We know that we have confirmed 10, but we did have people who had been transported who we're in critical condition. And so I do not know that. But I can confirm 10.

RICE: And one quick follow up question, if I may. We know that there have been some local records in Texas about a misdemeanor background on this suspect.

Any signs or warnings ahead of time about this person or their plans for -- for what to happen this morning?

KIRKPATRICK: Because that is the investigation part. I will give the FBI.

ALETHEA DUNCAN, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: At this time, we cannot go into details about the subjects history. What I can tell you, the person was an Army veteran. We believe he was honorably discharged. But we're working through this process, figuring out all this information.

The goal with the FBI is to provide you with the most accurate and complete information. So once that information is confirmed, we'll make sure we push that out.

Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Ariel?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: At this time, do you know exactly, as far as the victims, how many are from here in Louisiana versus out of state and their ages?

DUNCAN: At this time, I can't go into details about all the victims. We want to make sure that first that the family is notified appropriately before we put any information out there.

[14:35:05]

So once the families are all notified, then we'll go ahead and release a statement to everyone.

LANDRY: And I would ask the press, in relation to the victims and those that are in the hospital, if we could just refrain from worrying about them or their loved ones can take care of them, and the medical personnel that are that are trying to get them out of the hospital can do so.

And as information becomes available, but we want to respect the privacy of those who are still either fighting for their lives or -- or being cared for.

Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I'll follow up if I may.

LANDRY: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You guys mentioned accomplices. You don't think that the suspect acted alone, about how many were suspects are you guys looking into at this point?

DUNCAN: It's a range of suspects. And right now, with the FAA, we do not run a rule anything out. So that's why we're asking if anyone has had any interaction with the deceased subject, Jabbar, in the last 72 hours to provide us with this -- provide us with this information.

You can provide us that information through 1-800 -- Call FBI, or our digital -- digital tips line, which is available on our social media Web site, as well as the big FBI Web site.

SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): Can I say something?

Tell me who you're with.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: WDSU.

KENNEDY: WDSU, OK, and CBS.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: NBC's over here on the right.

KENNEDY: Oh, that's an unusual position. (LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I don't get it.

KENNEDY: You wouldn't.

Look, the FBI is not going to be able to answer those questions, OK? They will eventually. I promise you. OK?

Once the FBI has a chance to investigate all of this, along with working with state police, working with Homeland Security, working with the city of New Orleans. they're going to tell you what happened. I can promise you that.

Or I'm going to raise fresh hell. But right now, they're in the process of trying to catch the other bad guys. And I want to give them the benefit of the doubt for a while.

LANDRY: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes, I had a question about the victims. I know that there was obviously gunfire exchanged. So I guess, how many victims were shot? And then how many were injured?

LANDRY: Look, again, let me reiterate both Special Agent Duncan and Senator Kennedy. There's a lot of -- I get that you all want to know minute details. What we don't want to do is impede this investigation or spend any time talking about things that don't get us closer to hunting these folks down and securing this city.

And so at a particular point in time, we will release as much information as we can. But at this time, in relation to the investigation, I would ask you all to refrain from those.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, ladies and gentlemen, if we don't, if we're going to just have more of the same as the governor just said, we're going to provide that information, but we're going to wrap the press conference now.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Hold on, hold on.

Let me finish. You listening, if all of the questions are more of the same, what the governor just said in position, we won't be doing that to provide that information.

And if you have a different question --

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mines different.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- then let's do that quickly and move on. OK?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: My question -- UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold

on there.

LANDRY: Ma'am --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Now who was next? We had over here.

RACHEL WOLFE, REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL" Hi, Rachel Wolfe from "The Wall Street Journal."

You said you were confident there are multiple suspects involved. What makes you confident in that?

LANDRY: Well, like, why would we tell you that?

(CROSSTALK)

LANDRY: Again, that's -- I mean, look, again, again, look again, we want to answer pertinent questions. But anything that would lead to impeding or endangering this investigation is not going to be said.

And we will, as information unfolds -- this is a very fluid, fluid process. And remember something, too. We're doing two things. We're hunting some bad people down and we're securing the city, too. We're getting ready for a Sugar Bowl tomorrow.

So if you all would, again, if you have questions regarding the Sugar Bowl, the safety of the city or something to that effect, we're happy to answer.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Over here.

LANDEY: OK. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Usually, in parts of the French Quarter, specifically in parts of Bourbon Street, there are bollards. We're hearing that some of those may have been down because of repairs.

Can you speak to that? And maybe was there any backup option of putting a truck there or NOPD car there?

LANDRY: Well, let me tell you. Yes. One, I'm going to let the mayor answer. I want you to know that's one of the first things I thought of this morning when the mayor called me. OK? And -- and I will tell you that whatever the problem was -- is going to be solved.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you for having us.

[14:40:02]

MAYOR LATOYA CENTRELL (D-NEW ORLEANS): Thank you, Governor.

And thank you for the question. I do understand that it's been on your radar since this morning.

As it relates to the bollards on Bourbon Street, over 10 years ago -- excuse me. OK. Over 10 years ago, the city of New Orleans implemented an infrastructure project placing bollards on Bourbon Street.

Shortly thereafter, the malfunctions of those bollards ensued from, Mardi Gras beads online on down. But the New Orleans Police Department, of course, deemed them inefficient because they did not operate the way that they were intended to do.

Because the city of New Orleans is hosting Superbowl this year, it gave the city of New Orleans an opportunity to go further and deeper with infrastructure improvements, as we've been talking about.

So as a result of that, we were able to build in bollard replacement into our Superbowl infrastructure package. And because of that, the city of New Orleans has moved forward with that infrastructure that is nearing completion.

Bollards were not up because they are near completion with the expectation of being completed, of course, by Superbowl, way before Superbowl. But that is the reason.

Now, the New Orleans Police Department and chief, you can speak to the deployment as to respond to our needs and existing conditions.

KIRKPATRICK: All right. So we have been aware of the situation for a long time. And we did, indeed, harden those target areas where the bollards are. We have patrol cars out there as a hard target as well as with barriers.

Now I want to share with you all, if you did not know, that this particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard -- hard target where we did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there and they still got around.

Now the wedges that you see out there as well, we knew that that had malfunction problems. And I want you to understand, let's say we put the wedge up and it got stuck. There is no way that an ambulance could get in or out. People couldn't get in and out.

So we knew that these were malfunction. So we did, indeed, have a plan. But the terrorist defeated it.

LANDRY: Yes, yes. Let me just say this. We recognize we got a problem right here, right? We're going to fix it. It is going to be a top priority as we go into the Superbowl and Mardi Gras.

And the solution that we're going to come up with is going to be a permanent one. It's going to be placed into the standard operating procedure of having major events and securing that quarter.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A follow up, if I may. Obviously, probably postpone until tomorrow, but I'm sure after that game a lot of people are going to want to celebrate. Are there plans to keep Bourbon Street closed? What does that look like? LANDRY: So right now, Bourbon Street is an active crime scene. And the

FBI is in charge of it. When they clear it and it does not become an active crime scene anymore, we're going to open it up, potentially.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

Can we ask about this military police presence that -- that you want to call it? Is this a private security like Blackwater? Also, would that be a first that a private security firm is mobilized to supplement local and state law?

LANDRY: No, no, no, no, no. We're not -- no, this is our National Guard. These are our citizens that we bring it in. It's a military police company that we recognize.

We need some more resources. We need some more boots on the ground, because, again, what we're doing now is twofold. We've got an active investigation and we've got to enhance security.

Before this event, we were just enhancing and working on security. So we brought some additional resources.

JESSE KIRSCH, CORRESPONDENT, NBC NEWS: I'm Jesse Kirsch with NBC News. Thank you for holding this press preview.

I just want to clarify something. First, you were just talking about bollards that are being repaired. Talk about a get a lift gate that are replaced and then a lift gate that's not been working.

Was there a vehicle in place of that lift gate last night? Was there -- were there things in place of those bollards which are being repaired?

DUNCAN: Sure. The chief spoke to --

KIRKPATRICK: -- the plan in place and that is -- yes. That was indeed. And --

(CROSSTALK)

KIRSCH: -- that is anything that is currently in the midst of being repaired, had a backup replacement?

KIRKPATRICK: It had vehicles, and officers were there where all of those bollards, ballasts have been. We had that. We knew. So we did have it. And like I said, in this particular case, terrorists just went all the way around up onto the sidewalk and the lift gate.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:45:03]

KIRSCH: Was there a vehicle like backing in and out to block that lift gate area, or was that just down in open? Because that's what we've heard from the witness.

KIRKPATRICK: Captain?

I'm -- the reason I'm calling the captain, he's the captain over that district. And that is a question I'm going to let him address for you.

CAPT. JOHN ROBERTS, EIGHTH DISTRICT, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good evening, everybody. I'm Captain John Roberts of the Eighth District.

Yes, we did have a vehicle strategically placed right in front of the wedge, preventing access onto the roadway -- roadway.

KIRSCH: And in terms of the framework of security that was already in place on Bourbon Street, I know this is an ongoing project of improvement, but with how that was all aligned, was someone getting up on a sidewalk considered impossible or nearly impossible, or was this not something you expected you would have to account for?

ROBERTS: Yes, of course, it wasn't something we expected to account for. The bollards are -- there actually wedges. They're strategically placed in five locations throughout the French Quarter on the roadway.

This particular terrorist drove onto the sidewalk behind the police car to gain access to the 100 block of Bourbon Street.

KIRSCH: So if you're worried about someone ever driving down Bourbon Street, why weren't you worried about someone driving up the sidewalk in the same way, or at least bracing for it the same way?

ROBERTS: OK. Yes.

LANDRY: All right. Look, we could go on what ifs forever.

This is evil. And -- and that guy could have easily gone down the sidewalk of Canal Street where there were a ton of pedestrians on there as well.

(CROSSTALK)

LANDRY: And there are. And there are. That's right, that's right, that's right.

(CROSSTALK)

KIRSCH: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

LANDRY: Just want you to know, however, we recognize, I said earlier, that where there are defects in this system, we are going to be transparent and we are going to address them with the city and make sure that we fill those gaps as best we can.

Yes?

CHELSEA BRASTED, CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Yes, Chelsea Brasted with Axios.

I have a question just about sort of ongoing public safety today. The special agent mentioned two IED -- possible IEDs. Were those in the same location? Should residents in the French Quarter or elsewhere be concerned about potential other situations?

DUNCAN: The two IEDs that we're in different locations. And what we've done, in conjunction with our local and state partners, we've gone through and done a sweep to identify anything that we thought was suspicious. And we have not.

However, as I said before, if the public sees something, please reach out to us. That way we can go through and verify that we did not miss anything. But we conducted initial sweeps, I think starting shortly after our initial call.

BRASTED: Thank you.

KIRKPATRICK: I do want to share that we have a plan and we have been implementing that plan. One of those plans is that we have swept all of these areas.

The word swept means we have put officers out there, as a grid, walking down the streets, every street in the French Quarter looking for suspicious packages, bags, ice chests, you name it.

And they have been walking it as a grid. We've been doing the same thing on Poydras and all the accesses into the Superdome.

Part of the safety plan is we have bomb dogs out there sweeping the Superdome and all the exterior area, and we're locking that down. That will be locked down through the game tomorrow.

So that's a part of that safety plan. And we've already been implementing it.

UNIDENTIFIED OFFICER: OK. Thank you all for coming out.

Question back here for the governor on the M.P.s.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: How many M.P.s will be deployed to New Orleans right now?

LANDRY: There's -- I think it's, Joe, 100?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One hundred?

LANDRY: One hundred. And yes.

All right. Thank you all so much.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What gives you the confidence tomorrow night it'll be safe right?

LANDRY: I'm going to be there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me, too.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're all set? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we're going to be there. We're going to be

there.

(CROSSTALK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: All right. That was some kind of press conference that we were watching there out of New Orleans following this attack, where a suspect drove through the French Quarter and killed at least 10 people overnight here.

Officials -- and so many of them -- it was really an extraordinary sight. And talking over each other. Sometimes bumping into each other. There were some interesting dynamics at play. We're going to talk about that.

We're going to talk though about what we learned, which is a lot of new information.

I want to bring in our Evan Perez and our Tom Foreman, who are on set with us.

We also have former Boston police commissioner, Ed Davis, with us, and former FBI Agent Breanna Fox.

Just to touch on some of the headlines of what we saw, Evan, and I could see it on your face because that was an extraordinary press conference.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes --

KEILAR: I will say, from what we saw.

PEREZ: -- it's very rare to see one like that.

KEILAR: Yes, that, and we'll talk about that in a second.

[14:50:02]

But first, we learned the identity, which we had reported before. This is a 42 year old Texan, Shamsud Din Jabbar, Army veteran, honorably discharged, we learned from the FBI assistant special agent in charge there.

But I think the big headline was, we do not believe he was socially responsible.

PEREZ: Right. And she additional said, when she was asked more questions there - some more questions there, she also said there were additional suspects. So multiple suspects that are being investigated, that are being looked at for possible involvement with this.

And so the issue here now for the FBI is, you know, we haven't had an attack like this in some time where you have more than one person involved. Usually, we have - you know, you have a lone world-type of attacks. And one reason why they're frankly more common is because it's easier to carry something out when it's just you. You keep that thing - you plan to yourself. The minute you involve other people, there is the possibility that it would be found out by law enforcement.

And so, you know, the extraordinary thing in there in that press conference, let's just pause for a second, is to have the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI having to go around a Senator there who really was serving no -- really no good purpose.

No -- providing no real information for the purposes of this, of this press conference, in order to answer questions and to provide that information. That is extraordinary.

I think what you're seeing, though, is obviously a local -- local officials who are very, very defensive about some clear problems with the security of that evening. Right? The idea that you could place a police vehicle in a position where someone could drive an F-150 --

KEILAR: Around it.

PEREZ: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: A huge truck around Canal --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREZ: Around the Canal Street to get onto Bourbon Street and cause this level of destruction, It's so - it's a huge mess.

But for the FBIs perspective, Brianna, one of the important things is to figure out what signs there might have been here, including the radicalization. When did that happen? Did the Pentagon, anyone at the Pentagon know about this?

And all of these things are questions that the FBI is trying to run down.

KEILAR: Because there are so many vectors. The point, it seemed, of -- of elected officials, including Senator John Kennedy, Republican, and Democratic Congressman Troy Carter, they both we're promising to really hunt whoever is responsible down.

This was obviously an informative press conference as well, but that created another vector to it. As you also had -- Tom, and I just want to be clear, you have ties to New Orleans. You spent many years there.

There's also this huge concern ahead of a big tourist event, which was supposed to be tonight. It's now being postponed to tomorrow. We just learned the Sugar Bowl is being postponed tomorrow.

There's also this huge concern about proceeding with that -- and that we saw that on display. TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, absolutely. And look, I

mean, like you, the whole notion that they kept coming back with this incredulous, look, I only drove on the sidewalk, like we've never heard of that.

And that's happened in numerous attacks like this. People have been on the sidewalk.

Important to note the idea of using vehicles as weapons in terrorist attacks started steadily growing, really started picking up in like 2015, 2016 and just kept going all around the world. There's reason to worry about this.

This is why they were replacing the bollards, because they knew it was a threat and then fell short of it.

Yes, you talk about the events coming up, Sugar Bowl tomorrow night, now big crowd for that. Mardi Gras actually begins next Monday. That's the first parade. There will be Mardi Gras events from then until Mardi Gras, which is in early March this year.

The Superbowl is coming up in February. After all of that, there will be Jazz Fest. These things bring millions of people to this town.

And they're very good at handling crowds. But what you saw today was they knew they had a problem. They all kept saying, well, we're going to fix it. But the question is, you knew this was happening. You knew it was happening now. When you took the bollards out, why was there not a more robust system to stop it?

KEILAR: Yes. Big concerns right now about whether their temporary fix to that. Clearly, did not do what it needed to do.

FOREMAN: And I've been there. I've been there in Mardi Gras when they have had those big like two-ton trucks blocking roads that you could not drive around.

(CROSSTALK)

FOREMAN: Yes, I've seen that --

(CROSSTALK)

FOREMAN: -- because they've had -- you know, they've had drunk drivers hit the crowds.

KEILAR: But, yes, that's right. They've had those concerns before. This was a police vehicle they're describing.

I want to bring in Ed Davis to talk about this.

Ed, what did you think of that press conference? Both of what you learned and also the dynamics that we're on display there?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Hi, Brianna. Well, clearly the most important issue that came out of that was the fact that there are coconspirators that they -- they've apparently identified or at least are on the tail of. And -- and they we're in the wind. They're still out there. So that makes this a very chaotic situation.

[14:55:10]

There is a propensity for public officials to say everything's all right. We've got it under control. And maybe they do. Maybe there's a team watching these guys right now, and they're -- and they're ready to move on them.

But to say that you can do the bowl game tomorrow night but you can't do it tonight is -- is really a stretch. And -- and so this is -- this is as chaotic as it can get as far as the -- the investigation.

We really have to concentrate on rolling this group up and making sure that the city is safe with all of these upcoming events.

And as far as the press conference, it was really chaotic. Again, and there were -- you know, I mean, I realize that political figures will try to come in in these situations, and they should. They should be able to speak.

But to have dozens and dozens of people on -- on the dais standing behind that don't serve a purpose just adds to the lack of control.

I give credit for the young officer who was attempting to -- to get the press corralled there. But it just wasn't going to happen in this situation. So they need to work --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I mean, and in fairness to the press, I don't think it was -- the press wasn't the group that needed corralling. It was the group that we saw there talking to the press, physically jostling as they were answering questions, there were so many of them up there.

But so, Ed, it's interesting because when you hear the governor say that, you know, New Orleans or it's safer today than it was yesterday, but we are led to believe there's someone else out there, a coconspirator, coconspirators, plural, that have not been apprehended to our knowledge.

How do you square those statements ahead of another huge tourist event scheduled in New Orleans tomorrow?

DAVIS: Well, the problem is you don't. You really can't try to look on the bright side of this, right?

The most important thing here is transparency and honesty. You can't give inside information on the investigation, but you can be honest with people about the fact that we might not know exactly where we are on this.

People are much more resilient and understanding. If you just put the truth out there. And -- and that's -- that's the problem that I see. I really feel bad for the public officials. But they're kind of twisting in the wind and people are seeing right through it.

KEILAR: Yes, a lot of information, some good information. But also, as you said, a lot of stuff that could be confusing and perhaps -- perhaps give folks some pause ahead of what is still another big day in New Orleans.

At a time when, quite frankly, the city is just reeling. So many local folks who have died in this and are still fighting for their lives in local hospitals, there.

Ed, if you could stay with us, Evan and Tom as well. Thank you.

We're going to continue to follow this breaking news, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)