New Orleans' New Year's celebrations turn into horror and tragedy

New Orleans was in full swing in the early morning hours of New Year's Day.

Revelers were streaming from rowdy bars and crowded clubs in the city's French Quarter – an area often referred to as the beating heart of the city's famous nightlife.

“They were all young kids. There were a lot of 19, 20, 21-year-olds,” remembers Derek Albert, a local DJ who plies his trade every night at the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets.

This intersection is home to a packed tourist hotel, an ice cream and chocolate candy shop, and restaurants selling oysters and daiquiris in large plastic to-go cups.

But at around 03:15 (09:15 GMT), the youth's celebrations turned to terror when a man – named Shams Al-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texan and US Army veteran – drove a rented truck high. Speeding in a crowd.

At least 15 people were killed and dozens injured, some seriously.

Surveillance camera footage shows the moment the attack began, as the white truck was driving on Canal Street past other vehicles, before turning right onto Bourbon Street, swerving around a police car, suddenly accelerating and plowing into the crowds.

“We just heard this screech, the engine revving, and a huge, loud crash,” Kimberly Stricklin, a visitor to New Orleans, told Reuters. “Then, people scream. The sound of crushing metal and bodies.”

The car would continue for three blocks — hitting more pedestrians along the way — until the driver crashed and stopped near the corner of Bourbon and Conti streets.

Jabbar then abandoned his car and opened fire on the police. He was killed by return fire.

“We heard gunshots and saw people running in front of the window,” said Steve Hyde, a British visitor who was at a bar called Erin Rose, on Conti Street off Bourbon. “Then the sirens started…I'm sad. I love this city.”

By 03:17 — just two minutes after the attack — New Orleans Police Department officers, already on duty on New Year's Eve, were at the scene and calling for urgent help, picked up in chaotic radio chatter.

One officer can be heard saying, “I have at least six victims. I have an office doing chest compressions on one of them. I have another white male who is having difficulty breathing,” referring to the irritable, inflammatory breathing pattern common in emergency situations. “Many casualties.”

Soon after, the area was swarming with police, who cordoned off the entire area with crime scene tape and dozens of officers and vehicles as investigators arrived and ambulances departed.

For Albert, the incident represented a near-decision.

Just a few weeks ago, the city issued him a ticket and told him he had to move from his usual spot down the block — which would have been on the same sidewalk the suspect drove across to pass the police car.

“This is usually my corner,” he told the BBC, pointing to the Walgreens pharmacy on the edge of the crime scene.

“I would have been killed. I got lucky yesterday. He ran me right over. That mistake saved my life. I was the first one to hit him.”

The FBI said a black Islamic State flag was found inside the car that struck the concertgoers, along with two suspected explosive devices discovered nearby.

The investigation is still ongoing, and it remains unclear whether Jabbar acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy.

But on the streets of New Orleans, much of the debate has centered around whether more could have been done to prevent the attack and keep people safe.

Barriers that had been put in place years ago to prevent vehicles from entering Bourbon Street were in the process of being replaced, so there were gaps. There was a single police car parked there.

“We had a car there. We had barricades there. We had officers there, and they're still moving around,” New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters. “We already had a plan, but the terrorist thwarted it.”

The perceived failure to properly secure the road has left some, like Albert, puzzled.

He believes the number of people out on New Year's Eve, as well as the thousands of people in town for the upcoming Sugar Bowl football game scheduled for January 1, warrants tighter security.

A 2017 memo seen by CBS, the BBC's US partner, revealed that officials in New Orleans were aware of the risk of a mass casualty attack using vehicles as weapons.

The document specifically referred to similar attacks that occurred in France, the United Kingdom, and New York.

“We all knew it could happen at some point. Maybe at Mardi Gras. Maybe at the Super Bowl,” Albert said. “Of course they could have stopped that…they would be sued for it.”

Nearly 24 hours after the attack, the corner of Canal and Bourbon streets remained an active crime area, with dozens of police cars blocking the road and police tape still up.

But nearby, life – and the party – is slowly returning to the French Quarter.

Bars in the same building where the attack occurred were doing brisk business, primarily for the armies of football fans in town for the rescheduled Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame.

The music of a live jazz musician blared over curious onlookers who had come to see the crime scene. Across the street, a Michael Jackson impersonator moonwalked down the sidewalk as the coroner's car left the area.

While the area is still reeling from the attack and loss of life, many, like Mr Albert, said they were confident the area would return to normal sooner rather than later.

“Of course we will,” he said. “Of course we will come back.”