New Orleans Police Chief: This Mass Casualty Event Was Not ‘a DUI Situation’

EXCERPT:

KIRKPATRICK: “Good morning, everyone. So, I’m going to give you as much of the information I possibly can. We are going to give you an update a couple of times today. So, we will give you just the basics this morning, all right? We had — this event started at about 3:15. It did involve a man driving a pickup truck down Bourbon Street at a very fast pace and it was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. It was not a DUI situation. This is a more complex and more serious, based on the information we have right now. With respect to numbers we have right now, and as you already know, this could change throughout the day, w do know that there are 26 injured people who are at UMC hospital. We know we have four at Touro, four at Ochsner Baptist, one at Tulane. But even as I was walking out the door, I believe I have an unconfirmed additional people who have been taken to other area hospitals, possibly on the east side. But we will give you as many correct numbers as we can as the day progresses. It is a very tragic situation for me to tell you that we know we have 10 people that this man killed on Bourbon Street. That is why we do not want anyone on Bourbon Street today. Wherever you see yellow tape, please do not violate this tape. This is in order to protect and stabilize the scene.”