New Orleans victims' families seek answers in deadly New Years attack
2025-01-03
Category: news

Just hours before the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, Jack Bech got on a phone call with his older brother Martin - an avid outdoorsman and former football star mostly known to friends and teammates as "Tiger". Jack, 22, was in Dallas visiting family members, while Tiger, a 28-year-old former Princeton alumnus who lived in New York, was in New Orleans, getting ready to celebrate the New Year. "We just thought it was going to be another conversation," he told the BBC. "I was showing him what we were eating, and he was showing us what he was eating." The two brothers would never speak again. "I hung up the phone, and that was the last time I ever spoke with him," Jack recalled. Tiger was among the 14 people killed when an attacker ploughed through a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The rev of an engine and then screams - how revelry turned to mayhem in New OrleansFans flock to Sugar Bowl in New Orleans after deadly New Year's attackThe attacker, 42-year-old army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was killed in a gunfight with police after he drove a pick-up truck into the crowds, according to authorities. Though he posted videos online proclaiming allegiance to the Islamic State group before the attack, FBI officials said they believe he was acting alone. While the identities of all the victims have not been made public yet, a picture is slowly emerging of a group of mostly young people, many of whom - like Tiger - were Louisiana locals. Jack - who remembers his brother as his best friend, role model and inspiration - says that the close-knit Bech family will never be the same. 
Most of the family is in the town of Lafayette, about 136 miles (218km) away from New Orleans. "This is something we're going to have to deal with. Every time we wake up, and every time we go to sleep, it's going to be something," he added. "Every holiday, there's going to be an empty seat at the table." But Tiger said that his brother "wouldn't want us to grieve and mourn". Instead, he has encouraged his family to remember him as "a fighter". "He'd want us to keep attacking life...he'd want us to go and be there for each other," he said. "I told my family that instead of seeing him a couple of times a year, he'll be with us every moment," Jack added. "Whenever we're waking up and we're going to sleep and we're walking, when we're at work, doing whatever, he'll be with us." 
Among the other victims of the attack in the early morning hours of 1 January was Matthew Tenedorio, an audio-visual technician at New Orleans'  Caesars' Superdome. Tenedorio, who just turned 25 in October, had spent the earlier part of his evening at his brother's home in the town of Slidell, about 35 minutes away from New Orleans. With him were his father and mother - who just recently recovered from cancer. His cousin, Christina Bounds, told the BBC that his family "begged" him not to go into New Orleans, fearful of the large crowd and potential dangers. Despite their pleas, he went, along with two friends. When the news broke, his mother eventually got a hold of one of them. "They said they were walking down Bourbon, and saw a body fall," she said, noting that they now believe it was a body thrown into the air by the attacker's truck.Amid screams and gunshots, Tenedorio was separated from his friends. His family says he was shot, and believe he was killed during the exchange of gunfire between the attacker and police officers on Bourbon Street. The BBC is unable to independently verify this claim. According to Ms Bounds, the family's tragedy has been made more painful by the slow, nearly non-existent trickle of communications they've had with local authorities. "We couldn't get any information when my aunt [Tenedorio's mother, Cathy] showed up at the hospital," she said. "There has been no information from doctors, hospitals, or cops. Nobody.""They have zero information, and that's the part that's pissing everybody off. We don't even know what happened," Bounds added. "Was he carried out by the EMS? Was he in an ambulance? Did he die instantly?"These answers, she added, would "help people accept" what happened."But now it's like total shock," she added. "It's not registering."The family has started a GoFundMe page to gather funds for Tenedorio's funeral expenses - which Ms Bounds said have been made difficult by his mother's significant medical bills during her cancer diagnosis. Another cousin of Tenedorio's, Zach Colgan, remembers him as a "goofball" who was quick to make a joke, cared deeply about animals and was an avid storyteller. "He cared. He was definitely a people person. A happy-go-lucky guy," Mr Colgan told the BBC. "It's sad that a terrorist attack took him...no family should ever have to bury their son, especially for something so senseless." Mr Colgan, who has experience working with law enforcement in Louisiana, says he believes officers have done the best they can in an extremely hectic casualty situation. "I know it's chaotic. But part of closure is getting answers. I know my aunt and uncle weren't able to get much besides 'yes - Matthew was killed'," he said. "It'd be nice to know a little bit more," Mr Colgan added. ""If it was my kid, I'd want to know." Even as his family continues to search for answers, Mr Colgan says he hopes that the government and public's focus continues to be on the victims, rather than on law enforcement's response or what else could have been done to prevent the attack. "I want every single one of them to be remembered," he said. "They didn't deserve this. No one deserves this." 