CNN
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The warning signs and safety concerns were obvious – to New Orleans residents, tourists and experts alike.
Throngs of New Year’s Day revelers packed in the city’s bustling French Quarter had no strong barriers to protect them from speeding vehicles like the 6,000-pound truck that plowed into the crowd and killed 14 people.
The tragedy came years after a private security consulting firm warned in a 2019 report that the risk of terrorism in the French Quarter – specifically mass shootings and vehicular attacks – remained “highly possible while moderately probable.”
The report “strongly recommends” safety structures known as bollards be fixed and improved “immediately.”
And just last month, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI warned law enforcement of the threat of violence from lone offenders around the holidays and the potential use of vehicle ramming, according to two internal memos obtained by CNN.
But the city’s steel, portable barriers were in the down position during New Year’s celebrations. Instead of sturdy bollards, “They had the flimsy orange ones that you could just push over with your finger,” one witness said.
The city did park a police vehicle at the entrance to the street where more than a dozen revelers would be run over.
“This particular terrorist drove around, onto the sidewalk, and got around the hard target,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
“We did indeed have a plan,” she said. “But the terrorist defeated it.”
The barricades in question –– portable steel structures that can either lay flat or be raised depending on traffic –– seemed to stand out in the memories of several witnesses to the attack.
Both longtime residents and tourists who spoke with CNN and affiliates noted those barriers were not raised while recounting the deadly truck-ramming in the hours that followed.
Indeed, surveillance footage on Bourbon Street showed the pickup truck driving over one such barrier, which was not erect at the time of the incident, and speeding away after, narrowly missing partygoers.
“Those barricades were not up, period,” Jimmy Cothran, a party’s designated driver told CNN’s Pamela Brown. “They had the flimsy orange ones that you could just push over with your finger. We actually thought it was kind of odd.”
Jose Lieras, a tourist from Los Angeles, told CNN affiliate WDSU that the metal barricades at Bourbon and Canal Street were not raised –– instead, he saw “just the standard plastic ones.”
Lieras added that though there were a lot of police stationed at Bourbon Street, cars were still driving by while pedestrians walked all over the street.
“I don’t think they should let any vehicles at all. It should always be blocked off at nighttime because something like this could have happened.”
Shortly before Bourbon Street reopened Thursday, the police chief said the city is “hardening the target” around the famous street so that “any penetration would be almost next to impossible.”
That involved raising the existing barricades, bringing in heavier equipment and placing barriers that block sidewalk access, Kirkpatrick told CNN.
The police chief said she is confident officers will be able to keep people safe, especially as New Orleans prepares to host the Super Bowl next month and the Mardi Gras carnival in March.
The DHS and FBI had warned of possible vehicle attacks over the holidays
A joint DHS and FBI bulletin released December 6 and a follow up “critical incident note” about a vehicle attack on a German Christmas market came days before the massacre in New Orleans.
Joint bulletins are distributed to federal, state, and local law enforcement from DHS, FBI, and National Counterterrorism Center to inform them about the threat environment. They are shared among law enforcement when necessary, and generally ahead of the holiday season.
In the bulletin obtained by CNN, the federal agencies warned that “lone offenders pose most likely threat of violence to soft targets in the Homeland during winter holidays,” referring to individuals acting alone.
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“Lone offenders have historically used simple tactics, such as edged weapons, firearms, or vehicle ramming, due to their ease of access, ability to inflict mass casualties, and lack of required training,” the bulletin reads, listing other incidents in previous years.
The bulletin said foreign terrorist organizations and online supporters “historically have disseminated holiday-themed media calling for violence against Western celebrations, prominent landmarks, and religious institutions.”
“This year, FTOs began releasing winter holiday-related messaging earlier than in prior years, possibly foreshadowing an increase in FTO media production calling for violence during the winter holidays,” it said, referring to foreign terrorist organizations.
In the wake of a similar vehicle ramming attack in Nice, France, in July 2016, the city of New Orleans installed several steel mechanical barricades in the French Quarter in 2017 that could move in and out of position, according to NOLA.com.
In addition to the mechanical barricades, police could also deploy portable wooden and steel barricades and use their vehicles to block roads at certain times.
Michael Guillory, who works at a hotel near the scene of the New Year’s crime, told CNN affiliate WDSU he had “never” seen those steel barricades up in seven years.
On Google Maps Streetview, images of Bourbon Street show that there are also bollard systems on the ground. But the bollards –– vertical posts that can move up and down –– are in the process of being repaired, New Orleans City Councilmember Jean-Paul Morrell said on Wednesday.
The city has been working on installing new, removable stainless-steel bollards along several blocks, from Canal Street to St. Ann Street.
Like the portable and mechanical barricades, the bollards could close the street to traffic when needed to protect pedestrians but be lowered when the street was open to vehicles.
Construction on that project began in November and was expected to carry on through February.
In a city council meeting on Monday, a Department of Public Works official mentioned construction crews had cleared equipment on Bourbon Street ahead of New Year’s celebrations after a councilmember mentioned local businesses being impacted by the construction.
The bollards were the subject of a 2019 report from a private security consulting firm that noted the risk of terrorism in New Orleans’ French Quarter, specifically mass shootings and vehicular attacks, remained “highly possible while moderately probable.”
The report by Interfor International, reviewed by CNN, “strongly recommends” bollard mobilization to be fixed and improved “immediately.”
“The current bollard system on Bourbon Street does not appear to work,” said the report.
A source familiar with the assessment told CNN New Orleans owns the types of temporary barriers that could have effectively blocked access to Bourbon Street but didn’t opt to use them on the day of the attack.
“The barriers were in the midst of being repaired and replaced, but in actuality, in this instance, the individual circumvented the barriers by going on the sidewalk and getting past the area where they had police vehicles, where the repair barriers were at,” Morrell said on CNN News Central, referring to the maneuver that the suspected attacker used to skip the improvised police controls.
He continued, “So in this instance, even had the bollard barriers been up, the circumvention by riding on the sidewalk would have defeated them.”
“This person was dead set on attacking our great community,” Lesli Harris, a Councilwoman for New Orleans’ District B said to CNN.
“Whether or not it happened at that intersection or at another intersection along Bourbon Street, I think this person was aiming for New Orleans for whatever reason. And I don’t know that anything could have prevented this from happening.”
Harris added that law enforcement was stationed at the intersection of the attack and responded immediately – taking the suspect down and killing him – preventing what she said could have been a much larger scale attack.
“Bourbon Street itself is not a pedestrian area,” she said. “There are pedestrians, but there are also cross streets and there aren’t stations at every cross street to prevent this.”
Other New Orleans officials acknowledge that existing protocols are weak and in transition.
City officials saw next month’s Super Bowl as an opportunity to make needed infrastructure improvements including the bollards.
“We’re going to fix it. It is going to be a top priority as we go into the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, and the solution that we’re going to come up with is going to be a permanent one,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Wednesday.
“If you believe there is a threat that warrants blocking off the street to vehicles but allows pedestrians, then you need to do it and resource it properly,” Rodger Shanahan, a Middle East analyst and author of “Islamic State in Australia,” told CNN over the phone on Friday.
Shanahan added that stationing a single police vehicle at the top of the street was “obviously insufficient” and authorities should have deployed a variety of security protocols, like mechanical barricades on main routes and vehicles on minor routes.
Ensuring a road like Bourbon Street is secure is a balancing act, CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey said Thursday. Blocking off the street could affect businesses that need deliveries or restrict people from leaving in case of an emergency.
“It’s complicated … you have to make sure threats can’t get in, but you also have to make sure emergency responders can get out,” he said.
“They’ve got to come up with a plan that really allows for some flexibility. You’ve got businesses there that need deliveries, it’s residential, you’ve got people that live in the area there. And so, to permanently shut it down is something that just doesn’t make a lot of sense, but at the same time you have to very mindful that this is a target.”
By Thursday afternoon, officials had cleared Bourbon Street for reopening after raising the barricades and placing new barriers, known as archer barriers, that block sidewalk access.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect name of the firm that did the 2019 report on security risks in the French Quarter. It is Interfor International.
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