To residents of New Orleans, grieving goes beyond somber goodbyes. It involves celebrating the life we all lead together by dancing and playing music, to help usher those who have passed into the next life.
At a vigil on a crowded Bourbon Street on Saturday evening, several hundred people gathered to do just that. Paying tribute to the victims of the New Year’s Day attack, they sobbed and hugged. They placed candles, paintings and five-foot-crosses at two growing memorials. They listened plaintively as a brass band played the hymn “Just a Closer Walk With Thee.” Then they danced when it played “I’ll Fly Away.”
The vigil continued the mourning process in the city for the 14 people killed and the dozens injured when a Texas man drove a pickup into the city’s French Quarter, where crowds of people had gathered along Bourbon Street to celebrate. Federal authorities were investigating the act as a terrorist attack.
One of the victims was Elliot Wilkinson, 40. He had been released from prison and was homeless, but things seemed to be looking up. He had started searching for an apartment, according to a local homeless outreach group, Unity of Greater New Orleans. And he was back in one of his favorite places, according to his brother, Cecil Wilkinson.
“That’s where he wanted to go, when he got out, so that’s where he went,” the brother said on Friday. “He loved that city.”
On Friday evening, the city released the names of 12 of the 14 victims. All had died of blunt force injuries, according to the emailed release. A 13th victim was identified by the Metropolitan Police in London as a British citizen: Edward Pettifer, aged 31. One person had not yet been identified.
As their names were revealed this week, friends and families mourned the promising futures cut short. Some had just started college or new jobs. On Friday, people gathered near flowers and candles arranged along the path that the truck had taken. President Biden was planning to visit on Monday and meet with the victims’ families and others affected.
Among the victims was Drew Dauphin, 26, who had come to the city from Alabama with his little brother, Matthew. They had gotten separated after going to a concert and getting some pizza. Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, had planned to watch the fireworks along the river, he told his family. That morning they checked his phone’s location, and saw it had moved to Bourbon Street.
Matthew Tenedorio, 25, had gone out with friends after eating dinner with his parents. He was remembered for his childhood high jinks with his cousins, playing pranks and fighting with Nerf guns.
Kareem Badawi and Ni’Kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux were just 18. Mr. Badawi had recently finished his first semester at the University of Alabama, where he majored in mechanical engineering, according to his father.
Ms. Dedeaux was from Gulfport, Miss. She had just graduated from high school in the spring and was enrolling in college in New Orleans with plans to become a nurse.
The violence tore apart families and friends. Nicole Perez, 27, had just gotten a promotion at the deli where she worked. She left behind a 4-year-old son. Two cousins, Reggie Hunter, 37, and Kevin Curry, 38, came to the city to celebrate the new year together. Mr. Hunter died, and Mr. Curry was hospitalized with a broken leg.
Tiger Bech, a former college football player who died, was remembered by his little brother, Jack, in a post on social media: “Love you always brother!”
Some victims, like Mr. Wilkinson, had longstanding ties to New Orleans. Terrence Kennedy, 63, was a lifelong resident of the city and one of nine siblings, according to one of his nieces, Monisha James. With no children of his own, he was always ready to look after family members’ kids, she said. At family parties, he kept an eye out for plates to clear and drinks to refill.
Though many locals avoid the area except to work or perform, Mr. Kennedy loved to people watch and hang out outside of a shop on Bourbon Street, Ms. James. The family believes that is what drew him to the street on New Year’s Eve.
“He died doing something he liked to do,” she said.
Brandon Taylor, 43, was a restaurant cook and rapper. He regularly drove more than an hour from his home just south of New Orleans to see his fiancée, Heather Genusa, who lives near Baton Rouge. Ms. Genusa, 38, recalled that they talked on the phone for about six months before meeting in person in early 2023.
“I said once we meet, all the stars were going to align,” she said. “And they did. They really did.”
The couple were planning to move in together next month.
According to the city’s coroner, William Dimaio, 25, from New Jersey, was also among those killed.
Cecil Wilkinson said he had hoped to introduce his daughter to Elliot, but had not yet had the chance.
“We loved each other,” he said. “We always looked out for each other when we was younger.”
Some of the dozens of people injured in the attack were still hospitalized Saturday. Others had returned home but were still wrestling with what they had been through. Alexis Scott-Windham, 23, of Mobile, Ala., who had gone to New Orleans with friends to celebrate New Year’s, said the attacker’s truck had hit her right ankle as she rushed from its path. The impact tore skin from the back of her leg and fractured her ankle in multiple places. She was also shot in the foot.
She’s not ready to return to New Orleans just yet, but in a month or so she wants to visit the memorial on Bourbon Street.
“It could have been me,” she said.
As the band played its final notes at the vigil, moving back to the start of its route at the top of Bourbon Street, it passed a young man and woman who were holding a big bouquet of white flowers. They were looking for their friend Brooke, they said, whose brother was Mr. Gauthreaux.
They stood awkwardly. They didn’t quite know what to say, they said. All they wanted to do was hand over the flowers and give their grieving friend a kiss.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting. Kirsten Noyes and Jack Begg contributed research.
