Several square blocks of the main entertainment district were blocked off after the attack, in which authorities said a US military veteran plowed a pickup truck into pedestrians, killing at least 15 people and leaving a tear in the heart of the city known as the Big Easy.
“We’re all numb,” Ken Williams, a Creole chef who grew up in New Orleans and moonlights as a candy seller in the city’s usually raucous French Quarter, told AFP.
“Everybody is feeling shocked about what happened,” the 65-year-old added. “Some people are going to just try and drink it off — shake the fright off, you know?”
Williams said he was fortunate to have headed home about 1:30 am Wednesday, some 90 minutes before the carnage began.
Dwayne Perkins, 22, made the decision to stay out late, and said he saw the truck take off down Bourbon Street at high speed, leaving a trail of destruction.
“If the cops were doing their jobs last night, this would have never happened,” said Perkins, who lives in New Orleans.
He admonished the police force for allowing a private vehicle to enter a street that is for pedestrians only during times of celebration.
His coping mechanism in the aftermath? “Getting drunk and drowning out the pain” of the tragedy he witnessed.
