Families of victims, including brothers Jack and Martin Bech, and Matthew Tenedorio's grieving relatives, recount heartbreak, loss, and a desperate need for information following the tragedy of January 1st.
Tragedy Strikes New Orleans: Families Grieve After New Year's Eve Attack
Tragedy Strikes New Orleans: Families Grieve After New Year's Eve Attack
In a devastating turn of events, families of victims from the New Year’s attack in New Orleans seek answers and closure.
Just hours before the New Year, Jack Bech made a routine phone call to his older brother Martin, affectionately known as "Tiger." The 28-year-old Princeton alum was in New Orleans, gearing up for celebrations, while Jack, only 22, was in Dallas with family. "It was just a simple call showing what we were eating," Jack remembers. The joy of the moment was swiftly snuffed out when Martin was one of the 14 victims killed during a horrific attack on Bourbon Street.
The perpetrator, 42-year-old army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove a truck into the crowd before engaging in a fatal exchange of gunfire with police. Although Jabbar had previously posted allegiance to the Islamic State online, authorities are investigating whether he acted alone.
As the Bech family mourns their profound loss, Jack reflects on how their lives will irrevocably change: “There will be an empty seat at every holiday,” he laments. Yet, in the spirit of his brother, Jack encourages his family to remember him as a "fighter" who would want them to uplift their spirits and face life together.
Among the victims, Matthew Tenedorio, a 25-year-old technician at New Orleans' Caesars Superdome, also lost his life that night. After spending New Year’s Eve with family in Slidell, he defied his relatives' worries and headed into the city, ultimately becoming one of the many victims of senseless violence. His cousin, Christina Bounds, conveyed the family's anguish over delayed information from authorities: “We don’t even know what happened.”
The Tenedorio family created a GoFundMe to cover Matthew’s funeral costs, weighed down by his mother’s medical bills from her recent cancer battle. Describing Matthew as joyful and caring, cousin Zach Colgan expresses a common yearning among affected families for clarity and closure: “Every single one of them to be remembered,” he insists earnestly. “They didn't deserve this. No-one deserves this.”
As these families seek answers in their grief, their stories serve as poignant reminders of the human cost intertwined with such tragic events and the enduring need for empathy and accountability.
