LYNN, Mass. — Among the thousands on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early New Year’s morning: Lynn City Councilor Fred Hogan. He and other locals flew down to support Lynn native Joenel Aguero, a former St. John’s Prep standout and now a defensive back for the University of Georgia. UGA and Notre Dame are facing off in the Sugar Bowl. The game was supposed to be played on New Year’s night, but has been delayed 24 hours.
“The streets were person to person packed,” Hogan told Boston 25 News. “And after New Year’s went off more people took to the streets because a lot of them were inside the establishments.”
Around 2:30 a.m., Hogan and friends decided to head back to their hotel, the Sheraton on Canal Street.
“Something told us to go home,” he said. “We got something to eat on the way, we got some pizza and we made it home back to our hotel.”
Half an hour later, chaos and carnage erupted on Bourbon Street. Police said 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pick-up truck into the crowd, killing at least ten revelers and injuring many others. Police killed Jabbar after he exited the truck armed — then fired at officers.
High on the 17th floor of the hotel, Hogan had no idea his narrow escape — until later in the morning.
“In the morning we saw all the police cars,” Hogan said. “Canal Street is one of the main streets in New Orleans and they blocked off the whole street. So I thought it was some serious incident and my phone had a bunch of missed calls. So I started speaking to my family and we obviously put on the news.”
Just hours after the incident, Hogan and friends headed out for breakfast and found the mood far more subdued than the night before — when college football fans turned Bourbon Street into a gigantic pep rally.
“Obviously you’ve got the two schools down here, Notre Dame and Georgia, so there’s a huge New Year’s Eve crowd, everyone was having a great time... festive,” Hogan said. “I thought the New Orleans Police were doing a great job.”
What apparently did not do the job so well: street barriers put up to prevent just such an incident.
“They were like plastic barriers,” Hogan said. “Not like concrete Jersey barriers.”
But Hogan said police had every intersection heavily covered and expressed surprise that Jabbar was able to drive through.
“I thought it was pretty safe,” he said. “They had the officers on horses. They had plenty of police and personnel down there. It just thought it was a safe place and it was very festive.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
