The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will keep resources, including explosives-detecting dogs, in place in New Orleans through the next few months after Wednesday's deadly attack on Bourbon Street, the agent in charge of the New Orleans field division said Thursday.
The city and Superdome are being swept in preparation for the Sugar Bowl, which was postponed from Wednesday after a man plowed a truck into New Year's Eve revelers on Bourbon Street, ATF Special Agent Josh Jackson confirmed during a press conference Thursday.
"These resources will still be in the city as we lead up to the Super Bowl and through Mardi Gras," Jackson said.
The team of fire investigators, explosives specialists, and more are also working to identify what happened at a rental property where attack suspect Shamsud Din-Jabbar, 42, reportedly had been, and an ATF special response team is in New Orleans and "ready for the Sugar Bowl," he added.
"The team is made available to the Louisiana State Police and also the New Orleans Police Department to assist with any efforts that they may have during this period," Jackson said.
Victim witness coordinators will also be available to help victims and family members who suffered during the attack, he added.
"The entire city hurts, but the victims and family members are in need of resources and care long after this investigation wraps up," he said. "This time next year, it will be hard for the families and friends who suffered during this event. So our victim witness coordinators are working with the FBI and city of New Orleans coordinators to provide resources to these folks out here."
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, also at Thursday's press conference, said that as the FBI has returned control of Bourbon Street to the city, work started to clean the historic French Quarter location, and it will be open again for the Sugar Bowl.
Because of the work on the investigation and the assets that have come into play, "the confidence is there to reopen Bourbon Street to the public prior to game time today," said Cantrell. "I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, we're ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city because we are built to host at every single turn."
She added that she wanted to thank everyone who answered the FBI's call for information and tips.
"The investigation is still active and absolutely under the FBI's leadership," Cantrell said. "We will continue to operate and cooperate as we always have."
"This type of event can happen in any city, and that's the tragedy of it," she added. "I think it is important for people to understand that to protect our citizens in America from evil, you have to crush it. You can't go out there and placate it. You can't go out there and say, I'll put this in place and that in place and hope evil doesn't show up on your doorstep because it will. You have to crush it. And that's what we are going to do here."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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