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All 14 people killed in New Orleans terrorist attack identified • Louisiana Illuminator

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All 14 people killed in New Orleans terrorist attack identified • Louisiana Illuminator


NEW ORLEANS — All 14 people killed in Wednesday morning’s terror attack on Bourbon Street have been identified, either through family members or verification from the local coroner.

LaTasha Polk, 47, of New Orleans was the final person whose name was unknown until family members confirmed she had died to The Times-Picayune. She was celebrating New Year’s Eve in the French Quarter with her brother, Prentiss Polk, who is still missing, according to the report.

BBC News confirmed Edward Pettifer, 31, of England was also among those killed. He was the stepson of  the former nanny for Prince William and Price Harry..

Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna did not share Pettifer’s name Friday when he released the names of 12 of the deceased, citing the wishes of his family. The remaining victim, Polk, was identified only as a Black woman on the coroner’s list. 

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As of Friday, McKenna said he has yet to release the body of Shamsud-Din Jabbar at the direction of federal investigators.The 42-year-old Texas native tore through a three-block section of the French Quarter in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

More than three dozen people were injured, including two New Orleans police officers who were shot during a gunfight with Jabbar, who was killed after firing at law enforcement after he crashed his rented Ford F-15o pickup truck into a lift vehicle.  

A large crowd gathered Saturday night for a vigil ceremony at a memorial site that has materialized on Bourbon, just feet from where Jabbar entered Bourbon Street. Flowers, crosses, stuffed animals and candles are being placed next to a hydraulic street barrier, which wasn’t in place ahead of New Year’s Eve.

Other fatalities

Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi. The Times-Picayune reported she had accompanied her cousin and friend to the French Quarter for New Year’s Eve, her mother said.

Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, of Gretna. He graduated from Archbishop Shaw High School in 2021 and was remembered as a bright and promising young man, according to the school representative.

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Martin “Tiger” Bech, 28, of New York. Bech was a graduate of St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette who graduated from Princeton University, where he played on the football team. KLFY-TV in Lafayette reported Bech worked for a financial firm in New York.  His brother Jack, who played for LSU before transferring to Texas Tech.

Reggie Hunter, a Baton Rouge father of two, is pictured in a photo his family provided for a GoFundMe page.

Reggie Hunter, 37, of Baton Rouge. WAFB-TV reported the father of two made a last-minute decision to travel to the French Quarter with his cousin, who was also struck by the truck and injured.

Kareem Badawi, 18, of Baton Rouge. The 2024 graduate of Episcopal High School was a student at the University of Alabama. WAFB-TV reported the school sent a message to parents Wednesday about Badawi’s death. His classmate, Parker Vidrine, was also injured in the attack.

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Nicole Perez is pictured with her son, Melo, and his birthday cake.
Nicole Perez of Metairie is pictured with her son, Melo, in a photo posted on a GoFundMe page.

Nicole Perez, 27, of Metairie. The Times-Picayune reported she was the mother of a 4-year-old son and was recently promoted to a manager at the deli where she worked.

Drew Dauphin, 26, of Montgomery, Alabama. He was an engineer who worked for Honda, according to a report from AL.com. 

Matthew Tendorio, 25, an audiovisual technician at the Superdome from Carriere, Mississippi. His family has created an GoFundMe donation page to help cover the cost of his funeral. 

Billy DeMaio, 25, of Homedel, New Jersey. He was an account executive with Audacy Inc.

Terrence Kennedy, 63 of New Orleans. WDSU-TV first confirmed his death in the attack. Kennedy’s family told The Times-Picayune he had gone out for a drink in the French Quarter to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

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Brandon Taylor, 43, of Terrytown. The Times-Picayune reported that Taylor was with his  fiancée at a club in the 300 block of Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning. He stepped out onto the street near a lift vehicle just before Jabbar crashed his truck into it. It’s believed Taylor was the last person he struck.

Elliot Wilkinson, 40, of Lafayette. His brother, Cecil, posted on his Facebook page that he was notified Friday morning that his brother was among the fatalities. KPEL-FM reported that the Orleans Parish coroner had contacted the family.

The injured

The University of Georgia, whose football team took part in the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game against Notre Dame, confirmed that one of its students was critically injured in the terror attack. WBBH-TV confirmed the student is 19-year-old Elle Eisele of Fort Myers, Florida.

Eisele’s high school classmate, Steele Idelson, 19, was also hurt. She is a student at San Diego State University.

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Adam Coste, an employee of the National World War II Museum in New Orleans,  suffered “extensive injuries to his lower extremities,” according to a friend who created a GoFundMe page to help with medical expenses. He identified Coste as an Army veteran.

Jeremi Sensky of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, was paralyzed from the waist down before Wednesday’s attack. He was in his wheelchair going back to his French Quarter hotel room after dinner when Jabbar’s truck struck him on Bourbon Street, NBC News reported. He sustained two broken legs and needed surgery.

 

Alexis Scott-Windham of Mobile, Alabama, was struck by Jabbar’s truck then shot in the foot when he exchanged gunfire with police, The Times-Picayune reported. Her friend, Brandon Whitsett, was also hit by the truck and suffered multiple injuries. Two others in their group received minor injuries.

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Two visitors from Mexico were also among the injured, WVUE-TV Fox 8 reported. Both are in stable condition at a local hospital, and the Mexican consulate in New Orleans is working to keep their families informed.

ABC News reported that two Israeli nationals were injured. Israel’s consulate is sending a representative to New Orleans.

Lone actor

Jabbar posted five videos on his Facebook page in the two hours before he made his fatal drive down Bourbon Street. In one video recorded while he was driving from Houston to New Orleans, Jabbar said he “joined ISIS before the summer,” FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia said at a news conference Thursday. 

The pickup Jabbar drove was rented Monday in Houston, and he made the trip to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. Investigators believe he built improvised explosive devices at a short-term rental property 2 miles from the French Quarter.

One of the IEDs was found inside the pickup truck, which featured an Islamic State flag on a pole attached to its trailer hitch. The FBI said Friday a working remote detonation device was also found inside the truck.

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Raia said surveillance video shows Jabbar placing a cooler with a homemade bomb inside at the intersection of Bourbon and Orleans streets and a second device two blocks away. Both were safely detonated after the French Quarter was cleared and police swept the neighborhood for evidence and other explosives.

“Precursor chemicals” for bomb making were found in the mobile home where Jabbar lived in north Houston, according to the FBI. Agents broke down the door of the residence Thursday and returned to the site Friday in search of more evidence.

The FBI is saying their investigation to this point indicates Jabbar acted alone in planning the terror attack. Agents do not currently believe there are any links between the incident in New Orleans and Wednesday’s explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.

The driver of the truck, U.S. Army Master Sgt. Matthew Livelsberger, 37, left notes on his iPhone praising President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk and criticizing Democrats, the FBI said. Livelsberger committed suicide before the explosion, according to investigators.

This report was updated at 8 p.m. Saturday.

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Louisiana man arrested for allegedly planning attack in New Orleans – UPI.com

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Louisiana man arrested for allegedly planning attack in New Orleans – UPI.com


Dec. 16 (UPI) — A suspect identified as Micah James Legnon has been arrested by agents from the FBI’s New Iberia office for allegedly planning an attack on federal agents.

Legnon, 29, was a member of the Turtle Island Liberation Front and had communicated with four members who were charged with allegedly planning a series of New Year’s Eve terrorist attacks in the Greater Los Angeles area on Monday, WDSU reported.

He is a resident of New Iberia and was arrested on Friday while driving to New Orleans after FBI agents saw him loading a military-style rifle and body armor into his vehicle and telling others in a Signal chat group that he was traveling to New Orleans.

New Iberia is located about 120 miles west of New Orleans, and Legnon allegedly shared a video that showed multiple firearms, gas canisters and body armor before leaving on Friday.

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In that post, Legnon said he was “On my way to NOLA now, be there in about two hours,” but the FBI arrested him while driving east on U.S. Highway 90, according to WWL-TV.

In a Dec. 4 post, Legnon shared a Facebook post showing Customs and Border Protection agents arresting someone and said he wanted to “recreate Waco, Texas,” on the federal officers while referencing the 1993 federal siege on the Branch Davidians compound there.

He is a former Marine who was trained in combat and a self-professed satanist who used the alias “Black Witch” in group chats with four suspects accused of targeting locations throughout California.

Federal prosecutors filed a federal complaint against Legnon and asked the magistrate judge to seal it and related records due to an ongoing investigation.

They asked that it be unsealed on Tuesday, which is a day after the four suspects accused of planning the California terror attacks were charged with related crimes.

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The FBI said Legnon had been communicating with the four suspects in California before the arrests were made and charges filed in the respective cases.

The Turtle Island Liberation Front is a far-left, anti-government, anti-capitalist and pro-Palestinian group, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.



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Louisiana gets $15 million for literacy tutoring study initiative

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Louisiana gets  million for literacy tutoring study initiative


BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — The Louisiana Department of Education announced Tuesday it was awarded $15 million to lead a study on the increasing impact of high-dosage tutoring.

The grant came from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research program. State education leaders said the money will fund a five-year study to expand the impact of high-dosage literacy tutoring for students in grades 1-2 who are below grade level in reading.

“Louisiana has shown what’s possible when states are trusted to lead,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley. “We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Education for their confidence in our strategy and for investing in a Louisiana-designed solution to accelerate student literacy.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said making literacy outcomes stronger throughout the nation is one of her top priorities.

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“Every dollar from this year’s EIR awards will support the use and expansion of evidence-based literacy instruction, expand education choice, and empower grant recipients to build and sustain high-quality literacy support systems for students. This is a huge opportunity for states to lead, and they are rising to the occasion,” she said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, who joined McMahon in an August education roundtable in Baton Rouge, celebrated the funding. “Strong literacy skills are the foundation for everything that comes next in school and in life,” he said. “Louisiana has shown real progress, and this funding helps take what’s working and expand it so more students can succeed.”

Schools with low literacy proficiency rates will be prioritized. Air Reading, Studyyville, Johns Hopkins University and Louisiana higher education institutions will be key partnerships in the project.

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Gonzales restaurant becomes donation hub amid fear from Louisiana immigration operations

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Gonzales restaurant becomes donation hub amid fear from Louisiana immigration operations


GONZALES, La. (WAFB) – A once-busy Mexican restaurant in Gonzales now sits nearly empty, as its owner says fear surrounding recent immigration operations in Louisiana is keeping workers and customers away.

La Mexicana, which has served the community for almost 30 years, has seen a sharp decline in business. Owner Veronica Chaves said the restaurant currently has no employees and only a handful of customers.

“This is sad,” Chaves said.

She believes recent immigration enforcement efforts, including an operation known as Catahoula Crunch, have left many immigrant families afraid to leave their homes even for work or meals.

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“I just can’t believe it,” Chaves said.

Out of that fear, a new community effort has emerged.

Local college professor Raynell Hernandez, along with several volunteers, has helped turn La Mexicana into a donation drop-off site for families in need. Community members can donate food, clothing, and other essentials, while families can arrange safe pickup locations without being asked questions about their immigration status.

“We’re not trying to hide anyone. We’re just trying to help in any way that we can,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said she has received dozens of messages from people requesting basic necessities, including jackets, diapers, and baby formula. She said the effort is focused on helping as many families as possible, especially children.

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“Children don’t understand immigration status. They just know they’re hungry,” Hernandez said.

Both Hernandez and Chaves said they hope tensions surrounding immigration enforcement will ease soon. Until then, they say the community’s support is critical.

“Our hearts pour out to them,” Chaves said.

You can send donations to La Mexicana at any time between 9:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. The restaurant is located at 648 Louisiana 30 W B in Gonzales.

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