More victims of the New Year’s attack in New Orleans, which killed at least 14 people and injured dozens more, have been identified by their relatives, as authorities continue to investigate the fatal incident.
Officials have not yet formally released the names of the victims who were killed when a man drove a pickup truck into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans and then opened fire before being killed in a shootout with police, in what officials are investigating as an act of terrorism.
However, details about the victims continue to emerge as family members, who have been informed of their loved ones’ deaths, speak out.
On Thursday evening, a family from New Orleans said that their relative, 63-year-old Terrence Kennedy, was one of the 14 people killed in the attack.
“Just when I thought my family was out of the woods, unfortunately today we found out my uncle was one of the victims who was killed on Bourbon St,” Kennedy’s niece, Monisha James, wrote on social media.
“I know people say this all the time but if you knew ‘Uncle Terry’ you knew he was Nice and Quiet and Super Clean! I’m just really at a loss for words,” she added.
In an interview with local news outlet Nola.com, James stated that Kennedy had informed the family he was going to Bourbon Street for a drink to celebrate New Year’s Eve.
However, when the family hadn’t heard from him on New Year’s Day, they began to spread the word that he was missing. A cousin then contacted someone they knew at the Orleans parish coroner’s office, James said, who confirmed that Kennedy had died.
James said that her uncle was taken to East Jefferson general hospital, where he died around 6am on Wednesday.
James described her uncle as the “nicest person in the world” and as someone who was always ready to lend a helping hand.
Kennedy grew up in Uptown, New Orleans, and graduated from Walter Cohen high school, James said. He enjoyed NFL football, loving both the Saints and the Chiefs, but his favorite team was the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Other victims of the attack include 18-year-old Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, who had come to the city from nearby Gulfport, Mississippi, with a cousin and a friend; Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Tiger Bech, a native of Louisiana and former football player in his late 20s; and Nicole Perez, a mother and delicatessen manager from Metairie, Louisiana, also in her late 20s, who was celebrating the New Year with friend.
Also killed were 21-year-old Hubert Gauthreaux; 18-year-old Kareem Badawi, who was in the middle of his freshman year at the University of Alabama; 25-year-old Matthew Tenedorio, an audiovisual technician who had gone out with friends; and 25-year-old Billy DiMaio, an account executive based in New York who had come to New Orleans to celebrate the new year with friends.