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New Orleans Releases Most Names of Victims Killed in Attack

Published

1 year ago

January 4, 2025

New Orleans Releases Most Names of Victims Killed in Attack

Things had been looking up for Elliot Wilkinson, a 40-year-old man who was among the 14 people killed in New Orleans this week in what federal authorities were investigating as a terrorist attack.

Mr. Wilkinson had been released from prison and was homeless, but he had started searching for an apartment, according to a local homeless outreach group, Unity of Greater New Orleans. And he was back in one of his favorite places, according to his brother, Cecil Wilkinson.

“That’s where he wanted to go, when he got out, so that’s where he went,” the brother said. “He loved that city.”

Elliot WilkinsonCredit…via Cecil Wilkinson

In the early hours of New Year’s Day, a Texas man drove a pickup into the city’s French Quarter, where crowds of people had gathered along Bourbon Street to celebrate. Fourteen people were killed, and dozens more injured, including two police officers hurt during a shootout that killed the driver.

Bourbon Street’s bars, live music and crowds draw a lively but diverse mix of people, including tourists, buskers and homeless people down on their luck. On a holiday night, it drew a youthful crowd. Many of the victims were in their teens and twenties.

On Friday evening, the city released the names of 12 of the 14 victims. All had died of blunt force injuries, according to the emailed release. A thirteenth victim was identified by the Metropolitan Police in London as a British citizen: Edward Pettifer, aged 31. One person had not yet been identified.

As their names were revealed this week, friends and families mourned the promising futures cut short. Some had just started college or new jobs. On Friday, people gathered near flowers and candles arranged along the path that the truck had taken. President Biden was planning to visit on Monday and meet with the victims’ families and others affected.

Among the victims was Drew Dauphin, 26, who had come to the city from Alabama with his little brother, Matthew. They had gotten separated after going to a concert and getting some pizza. Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, had planned to watch the fireworks along the river, he told his family. That morning they checked his phone’s location, and saw it had moved to Bourbon Street.

Matthew Tenedorio, 25, had gone out with friends after eating dinner with his parents. He was remembered for his childhood high jinks with his cousins, playing pranks and fighting with Nerf guns.

Kareem Badawi and Ni’Kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux were just 18. Mr. Badawi had recently finished his first semester at the University of Alabama, where he majored in mechanical engineering, according to his father.

Ni’Kyra Cheyenne DedeauxCredit…Jennifer Smith

Ms. Dedeaux was from Gulfport, Miss. She had just graduated from high school in the spring and was enrolling in college in New Orleans with plans to become a nurse.

The violence tore apart families and friends. Nicole Perez, 27, had just gotten a promotion at the deli where she worked. She left behind a 4-year-old son. Two cousins, Reggie Hunter, 37, and Kevin Curry, 38, came to the city to celebrate the new year together. Mr. Hunter died, and Mr. Curry was hospitalized with a broken leg.

Nicole PerezCredit…Emily Elliott

Tiger Bech, a former college football player who died, was remembered by his little brother, Jack, in a post on social media: “Love you always brother!”

Some victims, like Mr. Wilkinson, had longstanding ties to New Orleans. Terrence Kennedy, 63, was a lifelong resident of the city and one of nine siblings, according to one of his nieces, Monisha James. With no children of his own, he was always ready to look after family members’ kids, she said. At family parties, he kept an eye out for plates to clear and drinks to refill.

Terrence KennedyCredit…via Monisha James

Though many locals avoid the area except to work or perform, Mr. Kennedy loved to people watch and hang out outside of a shop on Bourbon Street, Ms. James. The family believes that is what drew him to the street on New Year’s Eve.

“He died doing something he liked to do,” she said.

Brandon Taylor, 43, was a restaurant cook and rapper. He regularly drove more than an hour from his home just south of New Orleans to see his fiancée, Heather Genusa, who lives near Baton Rouge. Ms. Genusa, 38, recalled that they talked on the phone for about six months before meeting in person in early 2023.

Brandon TaylorCredit…via Heather Genusa

“I said once we meet, all the stars were going to align,” she said. “And they did. They really did.”

The couple were planning to move in together next month.

According to the city’s coroner, William Dimaio, 25, from New Jersey, was also among those killed.

Cecil Wilkinson said he had hoped to introduce his daughter to Elliot, but had not yet had the chance.

“We loved each other,” he said. “We always looked out for each other when we was younger.”

Some of the dozens of people injured in the attack were still hospitalized Saturday. Others had returned home but were still wrestling with what they had been through. Alexis Scott-Windham, 23, of Mobile, Ala., who had gone to New Orleans with friends to celebrate New Year’s, said the attacker’s truck had hit her right ankle as she rushed from its path. The impact tore skin from the back of her leg and fractured her ankle in multiple places. She was also shot in the foot.

She’s not ready to return to New Orleans just yet, but in a month or so she wants to visit the memorial on Bourbon Street.

“It could have been me,” she said.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes and Jack Begg contributed research.

Related Topics:Featured Funerals and Memorials Homeless Persons LA new orleans New Orleans (La)New Year's Day Attack (2025)

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Map: 4.9-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Louisiana

Published

2 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Map: 4.9-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Louisiana

Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. All times on the map are Central time. The New York Times

A light, 4.9-magnitude earthquake struck in Louisiana on Thursday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 5:30 a.m. Central time about 6 miles west of Edgefield, La., data from the agency shows.

U.S.G.S. data earlier reported that the magnitude was 4.4.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Central time. Shake data is as of Thursday, March 5 at 8:40 a.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Thursday, March 5 at 10:46 a.m. Eastern.

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Donald Trump has no ‘phase two’ plan for Iran war, says US senator

Published

4 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Donald Trump has no ‘phase two’ plan for Iran war, says US senator

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Man accused of plot to assassinate Trump testifies Iran pressured him, says Biden and Haley were other possible targets

Published

4 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Man accused of plot to assassinate Trump testifies Iran pressured him, says Biden and Haley were other possible targets

The allegation sounded like the stuff of spy movies: A Pakistani businessman trying to hire hit men, even handing them $5,000 in cash, to kill a U.S. politician on behalf of Iran ‘s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.

It was true, and potential targets of the 2024 scheme included now-President Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate and ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the man told jurors at his attempted terrorism trial in New York on Wednesday. But he insisted his actions were driven by fear for loved ones in Iran, and he figured he’d be apprehended before anything came of the scheme.

“My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” the defendant, Asif Merchant, testified through an Urdu interpreter. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.”

Merchant said he had anticipated getting arrested before anyone was killed, intended to cooperate with the U.S. government and had hoped that would help him get a green card.

U.S. authorities were, indeed, on to him – the supposed hit men he paid were actually undercover FBI agents – and he was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania. During a search, investigators said they found a handwritten note that contained the codewords for the various aspects of the plot, CBS News previously reported.

Merchant did sit for voluntary FBI interviews, but he ultimately ended up with a trial, not a cooperation deal.

“You traveled to the United States for the purpose of hiring Mafia members to kill a politician, correct?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta asked during her turn questioning Merchant Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal court.

“That’s right,” Merchant replied, his demeanor as matter-of-fact as his testimony was unusual.

The trial is unfolding amid the less than week-old Iran war, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike that Trump summed up as “I got him before he got me.” Jurors are instructed to ignore news pertaining to the case.

The Iranian government has denied plotting to kill Trump or other U.S. officials.

Merchant, 47, had a roughly 20-year banking career in Pakistan before getting involved in an array of businesses: clothing, car sales, banana exports, insulation imports. He openly has two families, one in Pakistan and the other in Iran – where, he said, he was introduced around the end of 2022 to a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative. They initially spoke about getting involved in a hawala, an informal money transfer system, Merchant said.

Merchant testified that his periodic visits to the U.S. for his garment business piqued the interest of his Revolutionary Guard contact, who trained him on countersurveillance techniques.

The U.S. deems the Revolutionary Guard a “foreign terrorist organization.” Formally called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the force has been prominent in Iran under Khamenei.

Merchant said the handler told him to seek U.S. residents interested in working for Iran. Then came another assignment: Look for a criminal to arrange protests, steal things, do some money laundering, “and maybe have somebody murdered,” Merchant recalled.

“He did not tell me exactly who it is, but he told me – he named three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley,” he added.

In 2024, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News Merchant planned to assassinate current and former government officials across the political spectrum.

Merchant allegedly sketched out the plot on a napkin inside his New York hotel room, prosecutors said, and told the individual “that there would be ‘security all around’ the person” they were planning to kill.

“No other option”

After U.S. immigration agents pulled Merchant aside at the Houston airport in April 2024, searched his possessions and asked about his travels to Iran, he concluded that he was under surveillance. But still he researched Trump rally locations, sketched out a plot for a shooting at a political rally, lined up the supposed hit men and scrambled together $5,000 from a cousin to pay them a “token of appreciation.”

This image provided by the Justice Department, contained in the complaint supporting the arrest warrant, shows Asif Merchant.

He even reported back to his Revolutionary Guard contact, sending observations – fake, Merchant said – tucked into a book that he shipped to Iran through a series of intermediaries.

Merchant said he “had no other option” than to play along because the handler had indicated that he knew who Merchant’s Iranian relatives were and where they lived.

In a court filing this week, prosecutors noted that Merchant didn’t seek out law enforcement to help with his purported predicament before he was arrested. He testified that he couldn’t turn to authorities because his handler had people watching him.

Prosecutors also said that in his FBI interviews, Merchant “neglected to mention any facts that could have supported” an argument that he acted under duress.

Merchant told jurors Wednesday that he didn’t think agents would believe his story, because their questions suggested “they think that I’m some type of super-spy.”

“And are you a super-spy?” defense lawyer Avraham Moskowitz asked.

“No,” Merchant said. “Absolutely not.”

Robert Legare

contributed to this report.