NEW Orleans police’s transformation in recent years helped prevent further bloodshed in Wednesday morning’s horror terror attack, a former assistant district attorney has claimed.
Rafael Goyeneche, a Louisiana native and president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission (MCC), works opposite the Ceasars Superdome, just minutes from the French Quarter, where 14 people were killed in the early hours of 2025.
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Shamsud Din Jabbar, a Texas-born US Army veteran, drove a rented pickup truck through New Year’s Eve revelers before he was killed by cops in a firefight.
But in the wake of the horror, cops have been praised for their bravery as they rushed to the scene to take down Jabbar.
Goyeneche, who served as Assistant District Attorney in Orleans Parish between 1980 and 1986, believes that the police’s quick actions saved many lives that night.
Video from Wednesday morning shows officers running directly towards the site of the terror attack on Canal and Bourbon Street, after receiving a notification.
Speaking to The U.S. Sun, Goyeneche said that the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) had been transformed in recent years.
“The NOPD has been under a federal consent degree since 2013,” he said.
“Over the past 12 years, the police department has gone from one that was dysfunctional and ineffective in combating crime externally in the community, to an organization that has gone through a complete culture change.”
“What you saw manifested in that video was the training automatically kick in,” Goyeneche said.
“The police officers received notice, one person pointed their finger, and the entire group of officers immediately ran towards the scene of the crime.
“That’s what police departments are supposed to do. That’s what this police department has spent the past 12 years changing the culture of the department.
“And that was just an automatic response based on the training and the culture change that’s occurred in the city over the past 12 years.”
In the immediate wake of the attack, attention turned to how Shamsud Din Jabbar was able to get his pickup truck into the pedestrianized zone of the French Quarter.
The area is usually closed off using barriers and bollards to prevent vehicles from entering it.
But on New Year’s Eve, the barriers were under repair, and a police vehicle was instead left at the entrance.
Jabbar was able to drive around the obstacle and start his murderous rampage.
Goyeneche said the barriers were the responsibility of the city, not the police, but officers would be looking into how the sidewalks were left exposed.
“When those barriers were installed, there were no barriers placed on the sidewalks,” he said.
“So those that were in place were retracting barriers that were embedded in the streets, but the sidewalks were left vulnerable.”
But he highlighted again the unprecedented nature of such an attack in a city like New Orleans.
DAYS OF TERROR
2025 has begun with a series of shocking incidents in the US sparking terror across the country.
Just three hours into the New Year, a driver deliberately plowed a pickup truck through crowds of revelers in New Orleans.
The suspected driver, Shamsud Din Jabbar, killed 14 people when he purposely drove into pedestrians in the French Quarter, before being killed himself in a firefight with police.
A further 35 were injured in the terror attack, believed to be inspired by the ISIS terror group, which Jabbar had pledged allegiance to earlier this year.
Jabbar is believed to have acted alone after authorities earlier said they were hunting for suspected accomplices.
He drove from his home in Houston, Texas, to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, posting several videos online proclaiming his support for ISIS, the FBI said on Thursday.
Later on Wednesday, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
One person – the driver – was killed in the blast while seven bystanders were wounded.
The driver has been named as 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, a US Army Green Beret who served at the same military base as Jabbar.
He lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and rented the Cybertruck through Turo, the same vehicle-sharing app used to rent the pickup truck used in the New Orleans attack.
However, at this point, the FBI says there is no confirmed link between Livelsberger and Jabbar.
On Thursday, January 2, there was a major lockdown around the US Capitol after a vehicle was spotted driving erratically on the sidewalk.
The driver was subsequently arrested and charged with dangerous driving.
It comes as DC plans to host several major events in the coming days, including the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter and the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
New Orleans is also hosting a number of mass events in the next few weeks, including the Sugar Bowl college football playoff, the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras, and Essence Festival.
“We’ve never had an event like this occur here,” he said.
But increased law enforcement was in place around the Caesar’s Superdome, where the postponed Sugar Bowl college football playoff was taking place.
Goyeneche pointed to “an increased presence of law enforcement in and around the Superdome” in the wake of Wednesday’s horror.
He also pointed to the stepped-up “hardening measures” designed to block major thoroughfares as pedestrians walk to the stadium, just minutes from the French Quarter.
“My office is literally right across the street from the Superdome,” Goyeneche said.
“There’s a big celebration outside with music, I can hear it as if I was standing out there, it’s that loud.
“But it just doesn’t feel right yet.”
Although the threat of terror attacks is an ever-present one, Goyeneche added that he “never thought in a million years that that could happen here. And it did.”
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