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Nikyra Dedeaux
Zion Parsons, of Gulfport, Mississippi, had been celebrating New Year’s Eve at his first night on Bourbon Street when a vehicle appeared and plowed into his friend, 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux, who he said had dreamed of becoming a nurse.
“A truck hit the corner and comes barreling through throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air,” Parsons told The Associated Press. “It hit her and flung her like at least 30 feet and I was just lucky to be alive.”
As the crowd scattered in the chaos he ran through a gruesome aftermath of bleeding and maimed victims, hearing gunshots and explosive sounds.
“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering” Parsons said. “People crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground. It was just insane, like the closest thing to a war zone that I’ve ever seen.”
Dedeaux was a responsible daughter who helped take care of her siblings, Parsons said. Dedeaux had a job at a hospital and was set to start college and begin working towards her goal of becoming a registered nurse.
“She had her mindset — she didn’t have everything figured out but she had the plan laid down,” Parsons said.
Reggie Hunter
A 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge, Reggie Hunter had just left work and headed to celebrate New Year’s with a cousin when the attack happened, his first cousin Shirell Jackson told Nola.com.
Hunter died and his cousin was injured, Jackson said.
Tiger Bech
A former high school and college football player from Louisiana was among those who died, according to an education official.
Tiger Bech, 27, died Wednesday morning at a New Orleans hospital, according to local media outlets citing Kim Broussard, the athletic director at St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette. Bech attended the high school, where he played wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner and defensive back, NOLA.com reported.
Bech played football at Princeton University before graduating in 2021. Most recently he was working as an investment trader at a New York brokerage firm.
Marty Cannon, STM principal and former coach of Bech, said he was charismatic, intelligent and an incredibly talented football player. He regularly returned home to visit his tight-knit family, close friends and people at the school. He was home over Christmas.
“We live in a relatively small community here where not a lot of people leave but many do,” Cannon said. “I’m not surprised at all that Tiger could take off from south Louisiana and go off and get an amazing education at a place like Princeton and then lock himself into a community up there and just flourish. He’s that kind of guy.”
Princeton football coach Bob Surace said Wednesday that he had been texting with Bech’s father, sharing memories of the player, who was a school kick returner and receiver from 2017 to 2019. He earned All-Ivy League honors as a returner.
“He might be the first Tiger to ever play for us, and that nickname kind of described him as a competitor,” Surace told ESPN. The school’s mascot is the tiger. “He was somebody that somehow, like in the key moments, just excelled and was full of energy, full of life.”
Bech has been working at Seaport Global, where company spokesperson Lisa Lieberman could not confirm his death. She told the AP, “He was extremely well regarded by everybody who knew him.”
Bech’s younger brother, Jack, is a top wide receiver at Texas Christian University.
In a response to a KLFY-TV report posted on X about Tiger Bech’s death, a post from an account for a Jack Bech on the social media site said: “Love you always brother ! You inspired me everyday now you get to be with me in every moment. I got this family T, don’t worry. This is for us.”
Nicole Perez
Nicole Perez was a single mother to a 4-year-old son working hard to make life better for her family when she was killed, according to her employer.
Perez, who was in her late 20s, was recently promoted to manager at Kimmy’s Deli in Metairie, Louisiana, and “was really excited about it,” deli owner Kimberly Usher said in a phone interview with the AP. Usher confirmed Perez’s death through her sister, who also works for her.
Usher said Perez would walk in the morning to the deli, which opened at breakfast time, and ask lots of questions about the business side of the operations. She also was permitted to bring her son, Melo, to work.
“She was a really good mom,” said Usher, who started a GoFundMe account to cover Perez’s burial costs and to help with expenses for her son that “he will need to transition into a new living situation,” the donation request says.
Injured in the Attack
— Heaven Sensky-Kirsch said her father, Jeremi Sensky, endured 10 hours of surgery for injuries that included two broken legs. He was taken off a ventilator Thursday.
Jeremi Sensky was ejected from the wheelchair he was using and had bruises to his face and head, Sensky-Kirsch said in a phone interview from a hospital intensive care unit.
“He’s talking right now,” Sensky-Kirsch said late Thursday morning.
Sensky, 51, who works in the family’s tree service business, had driven from his home in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, to New Orleans to celebrate the holiday.
Before the attack, Sensky and the two friends had been having pizza, his daughter said. Sensky left them to return to his hotel on Canal Street because he felt cold, she said.
Sensky-Kirsch said others could see the attacker coming and were able to run out of the way, but her father “was stuck on the road.” His wheelchair can be seen in some images lodged against a crane.
When he didn’t return to the hotel, they went to look for him, she said.
“We thought he was dead,” Sensky-Kirsch said. “We can’t believe he’s alive.”
— Ryan Quigley, who was a teammate of Bech’s at Princeton, was with him when they were struck by the truck. Quigley was injured, according to family and friends.
“Ryan is doing okay. He is stable and resting in the company of his family and friends,” the Quigleys said in an update on a GoFundMe page set up by his friends. “Ryan loves you all. Please keep the Bech family, the other families, and all of those affected by this tragedy in your prayers. Thank you all.”
— University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead said on X that a student was critically injured in the attack and is receiving medical treatment. He did not name the student.
— The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X that two Israeli citizens were injured in the attack.
— University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce said Thursday that one of the university’s students was critically injured in New Orleans. Boyce did not identify the student.
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The story has been updated to correct Tiger Bech’s age from 28 to 27, and to correct the spelling of Metairie, Louisiana, from Metarie.
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Jack Brook in New Orleans, Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, Travis Loller in Nashville and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama contributed to this report. Bellisle reported from Seattle.