LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The White House says that President Biden and the first lady will be going to New Orleans on Monday to grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack on January 1. We have some of the names of people killed on that day.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
According to the Associated Press, the 14 victims include Nicole Perez, a single mother to a 4-year-old.
FADEL: Tiger Bech, a former football player for Princeton University.
INSKEEP: Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old father of two.
FADEL: Nikyra Dedeaux, an 18-year-old aspiring nurse, and Kareem Badawi, a freshman at the University of Alabama.
INSKEEP: We also have some news about the attacker. The FBI has confirmed - as they understand up to this point - that the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an Army veteran from Texas, acted alone.
FADEL: NPR's Debbie Elliott is in New Orleans with this and other developments. Good morning, Debbie.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Hi. Good morning.
FADEL: So why did the FBI first suggest a broader conspiracy and then back off?
ELLIOTT: Well, another day of chasing down leads, and I think, in particular, a closer look at hundreds of hours of surveillance video. You know, it shows Jabbar placing two explosive devices concealed in coolers in the French Quarter, just a few blocks from the crash site. And as the investigation was unfolding, agents initially indicated that other people might have helped him plant those. But after looking at all that video, it turned out to just be curious passers-by who had stopped to check out the coolers on a street corner, right?
FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia, who's with the counterterrorism division at the agency, is urging those people to now call the FBI with whatever they saw. Raia had more information about Jabbar's motivation. The FBI says investigators have pieced together his activities leading up to the attack, including that he posted several online videos proclaiming his support for ISIS and previewing the violence that was to come.
FADEL: So it's been a couple days now. Bourbon Street is open again. What's life like there in New Orleans?
ELLIOTT: Just hyper-heightened security like I have never seen before, and I've covered this city for something like 30 years now. The college football playoff game between Georgia and Notre Dame was postponed by a day, was played in the Sugar Bowl without incident yesterday. Officers are posted everywhere you look, including military police from the Louisiana National Guard. Roads are blocked off around the Superdome, also in the French Quarter, where Bourbon Street, like you say, is back open. When I first went out there after it opened, there was still water fresh on the street from where the crime scene had been cleaned up, and already makeshift memorials - long-stemmed yellow roses for the 14 victims, people adding to that throughout the day. There seemed to be this determination not to let a terrorist sap the city's culture. Darnell Simms is a drummer with the One-Way Brass band, and he told me it was important just to bring the street music back.
DARNELL SIMMS: Just out here spreading peace and love and happiness to the people that we had lost out here on Bourbon on New Year's after the tragic terrorist attack. Just letting them know that the love is still out here.
ELLIOTT: He wasn't the only one trying to spread the love. As the band was playing on Bourbon, a man jogged down the street with a handmade flag that said, love, hoisted up on a fishpole.
FADEL: So after a mass killing, mass violence like this, what are you hearing from people in New Orleans about how they're going to move forward?
ELLIOTT: Certainly, people are shaken up - sadness, shock and questions about why local officials haven't done more to make Bourbon Street less vulnerable to an attack like this. Kinzie Faulk is a praline vendor who was pushing his cart along Canal. He says he's just trying to keep things going despite the uncertainty.
KINZIE FAULK: As of right now, everything's at a standstill. You know, everybody is, like, up in arms and, like, on their toes and trying to figure out what's next.
ELLIOTT: And what next are two more major national events, the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, here in New Orleans.
FADEL: NPR's Debbie Elliott in New Orleans. Thank you, Debbie.
ELLIOTT: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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