New Orleans victims’ families seek answers in deadly New Years attack

A few hours before the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, Jack Bech got a phone call from his older brother Martin – an outdoor enthusiast and former football player known to his friends and family as “Tiger”.

Jack, 22, was in Dallas visiting family, while Tiger, a 28-year-old former Princeton graduate who lives in New York, was in New Orleans, getting ready to celebrate the New Year.

“We just thought we’d talk again,” he told the BBC. “I show him what we’re eating, and he shows us what he’s eating.”

The two brothers never spoke again.

“I hung up the phone, and that was the last time I spoke to him,” Jack recalled.

Tiger was one of 14 people killed when a gunman drove through a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

42-year-old soldier Shamsud-Din Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police after he was shot. he drove a passenger caraccording to government officials. Although he posted videos online declaring allegiance to the Islamic State group before the incident, FBI officials said they believed he was acting alone.

Although the identities of all the victims have not yet been released, a picture is slowly emerging a group of mostly young peoplemany of them – like Tiger – were Louisianans.

Jack – who remembers his brother as his best friend, role model and inspiration – says Bech’s close-knit family will never be the same.

Most of these families are in the town of Lafayette, about 218 miles from New Orleans.

“This is what we have to deal with. Every time we wake up, and every time we go to sleep, it’s going to be something,” he said. “Every holiday, there will be an empty seat at the table.”

But Matigari said that his brother “does not want us to cry and cry”. Instead, he has encouraged his family to remember him as a “warrior”.

“He would want us to keep fighting for life … he would want us to go live there,” he said.

“I told my family that instead of seeing him a few times a year, he would be with us every minute,” added Jack. “Every time we wake up and sleep and walk, when we are at work, when we are doing everything, he is with us.”

Among the victims in the early morning hours of January 1st was Matthew Tenedorio, the New Orleans ‘Caesars’ Superdome star.

Tenedorio, who just turned 25 in October, had already spent the night at his brother’s house in the town of Slidell, about 35 minutes from New Orleans.

With him were his father and mother – who recently recovered from cancer.

His cousin, Christina Bounds, told the BBC that her family “begged” her not to go to New Orleans, fearing the crowds and the dangers.

Although he pleaded, he went with two of his friends. After hearing the news, his mother found one of them.

“They say they were walking in Bourbon, and they saw a body fall,” he said, noting that he now believed it was a body thrown into the air by the attacker’s car.

Amid screams and gunfire, Tenedorio was separated from his friends.

His family says he was shot, and is believed to have been killed during a shootout with police on Bourbon Street.

The BBC cannot independently verify these claims.

According to Ms Bounds, the family’s ordeal has been made all the more painful by the slow, non-existent contact they have had with the authorities.

“We could not find out anything when my aunt [Tenedorio’s mother, Cathy] He was found at the hospital,” he said. “There has been no information from doctors, hospitals, or the police. Nothing.”

“They have a lot of zeroes, and that’s the part that makes everybody angry. We don’t know what happened,” Bounds added. “Was he treated by EMS? Was he in an ambulance? Did he die instantly?”

These answers, he added, would “help people come to terms” with what happened.

“But now it’s like a complete shock,” he added. “It’s not registered.”

The family has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Tenedorio’s funeral – which Ms Bounds said was made difficult by her mother’s huge medical bills when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Tenedorio’s cousin, Zach Colgan, remembers him as a “goofball” who was quick to tell jokes, cared about animals and loved to tell stories.

“He cared. He was really a people person. A happy person,” Mr Colgan told the BBC. “It’s sad that criminals took him… no family should have to bury their child, especially over such a trivial matter.”

Mr. Colgan, who has experience working with police in Louisiana, said he believes the police will do their best to deal with serious injuries.

“I know it’s chaotic. But part of closure is finding answers. I know my aunt and uncle couldn’t find much besides ‘yes – Matthew was killed’,” she said.

“It would be nice to know more,” added Colgan. “If it was my son, I would want to know.”

While her family continues to search for answers, Colgan says she hopes the government and the public will focus on the victims, rather than what the authorities are responding to or what they could have done to prevent the attack.

“I want everyone to remember,” he said. “They didn’t deserve this. Nobody deserves this.”