As information continues to emerge from the awful mass casualty event on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early New Year’s Day, witnesses are describing a horrific scene — and questions are being raised as to whether appropriate security measures were in place to protect the crowds of revelers celebrating New Year’s Eve.
One witness to the event, Jimmy Cothran, spoke to NBC News about what he and his companions witnessed. I will warn you ahead of time: What Cothran describes is extremely disturbing.
😢💔 https://t.co/sRHEGqDDkT via @nbcnews
— Susie Moore ⚾️🌻🐶 (@SmoosieQ) January 1, 2025
BREAKING: Multiple Deaths/Injuries Reported After Driver Plows Into Crowd on Bourbon Street
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Initially asked by the NBC host how he was doing, Cothran replied, “Uh…blessed, but I’ve been better.”
Asked to describe what he saw early this morning, Cothran stated:
We were kind of finishing out the night, coming from Bourbon towards Canal, and there was a lot of commotion at the end, so we ducked off into a nightclub for a moment to let all that settle — what we thought was settling. And then, within a couple of minutes of walking in, a group of frantic females run inside, push past security, and hide under tables. And so, when we seen that — we live here, and unfortunately, our first thoughts were, ‘Somebody’s shooting or chasing them.’ So, we knew the club we were at — we ran upstairs.
We knew they had a balcony. Whenever we got to the balcony, it is not what we expected. There were — it was the beginning of the mass casualties…dead, right in front of us, was someone’s mother, twisted, obviously deceased. We counted eight, just from a couple of seconds of standing there — eight bodies. Two looked to be at least alive — I wouldn’t say survivable, but alive — and the other four were clearly, very clearly, graphically deceased.
Cothran indicated that initially, no one was tending to the dead or injured and explained that he has some training, but their group was kept inside the club for well over an hour. Eventually, others in the area did start rendering assistance. He further described the carnage they witnessed.
One man, deceased, had tire tracks across his back, and then when someone turned him over, he had tire tracks across his stomach, and he was clearly crushed. The mother that was in front of us…she was just horribly disfigured. A little girl that we had seen dancing as we were walking up the street was as flat as a pillow. I mean, it just kept going — like, every eye shot: body, body, body, body, body.
Cothran described hearing the truck barrel by while they were inside the club. By the time his group was on the balcony, the truck had advanced 8 to 10 blocks. Cothran then turned to the matter of barricades.
That’s what I was trying to tell the other people is…there were no barricades. Like, this barricade stuff they’re saying is not true.
Asked by the host whether there were any barricades in the French Quarter, Cothran replied:
Yes, we have tank barricades — like the metal, hydraulic-raising, unrammable barricades because this has happened so many times. When we got there, me and my friend were surprised that they hadn’t put these up because usually, you can walk safely in the middle of Bourbon — once you hit Bourbon. They weren’t up. So, you still kind of had to watch your back for cars, but this is at 8 p.m. So, now, we’re at 3:15, 3:10 a.m. — they never put the barricades up. This man was able to hit 70 miles an hour for a clean 8 to 10 blocks down bourbon.
Cothran added that the only thing that stopped the driver was when he wrecked the truck. He noted that “They had the flimsy, triangle-style orange and white barricades. That’s what they had.”
Obviously, the investigation into the incident is still in its early stages, but Cothran’s observations, assuming they’re accurate, raise serious questions as to safety measures in place to protect a vulnerable crowd attempting to celebrate the holiday in a popular tourist destination.
RedState will continue to monitor the story and provide additional details as they become available.
