A deadly attack in New Orleans has cast a shadow on Wednesday night’s college football playoff matchup between Notre Dame and Georgia. At least ten people are dead and over 30 injured after an assailant plowed into a crowd of revelers celebrating New Year’s festivities in New Orleans’ popular French Quarter neighborhood.
While the New Orleans mayor described the incident as a “terrorist attack” and the city’s police superintendent said the driver was “hellbent” on killing “as may people as he possibly could,” federal law enforcement is still looking into the motives of the suspect, who is believed to be dead.
Besides ringing in the new year, tens of thousands of University of Georgia and Notre Dame fans descended upon New Orleans to attend the Allstate Sugar Bowl, one of this year’s College Football Playoff games. A parade was held in the French Quarter at 2 p.m. local time that featured marching bands, floats and dance groups winding through the French Quarter.
The parade helped kick off the city’s New Year’s festivities as well as the big matchup at the Ceasers Superdome, which was scheduled to kick off on Wednesday evening. However, with the FBI investigating the incident and the public being told to stay away from Bourbon Street as it’s now become a grisly crime scene, will the game still go off as planned?.
As of now, the game is still scheduled to be played on Wednesday night, with kickoff set for 7:45 p.m. local time at the Caesars Superdome. Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said in a press conference on Wednesday morning that she wanted the city and its visitors to “continue enjoying” New Orleans despite the horrific attack.
