One minute, Jeremi Sensky was returning to his resort on New Orleans’ iconic Bourbon Road. The following, he was flung face-first to the bottom with the sound of gunfire round him.
“It’s actually bizarre however, as a result of there have been so many individuals in a single place, it went by means of my thoughts that it might occur,” he informed NBC of the New 12 months’s Day assault that noticed a pickup truck drive right into a crowd. Fifteen folks have been killed, together with the driving force, and dozens extra wounded.
Talking with NBC’s Tom Llamas from a hospital with two damaged legs, Sensky mentioned he by no means noticed the pickup truck coming. He was getting ready to reunite together with his buddies and name it an evening when he heard “a large noise,” making him assume one thing had fallen.
He mentioned he nonetheless doesn’t know whether or not the truck, which plowed into dozens of individuals at a excessive charge of velocity, hit him. All he remembers is being thrown facedown on the bottom and seeing his wheelchair, which he’s used for years as a result of a previous paralyzation, smashed to items round him.
Then there was the terrifying sound of gunfire, he mentioned. Police mentioned the suspect engaged in a shootout with officers moments after crashing his truck, which Sensky mentioned got here to a relaxation close to him.
“I keep in mind in my thoughts I used to be pondering, I hope I’m low sufficient on the bottom,” he mentioned of the gunfire, which in the end killed the driving force, police mentioned.
“I noticed folks they usually have been taking footage from the balcony,” he mentioned of onlookers as he screamed from the bottom for assist. “Individuals have been simply me.”
He continued hollering after being unable to search out his cellphone to name for assist himself.
“I used to be screaming and eventually somebody came to visit to me they usually mentioned, ‘Hear, I do know you’re damage, however you’re alive. You’re alive,’” he mentioned.
Chris Graythen by way of Getty Pictures
Finally, he was carried by means of the carnage by first responders to an ambulance and brought to a hospital, the place he underwent surgical procedure.
“Even now thus far, I can’t consider what occurred,” he mentioned of surviving the assault.
President Joe Biden will journey to New Orleans on Monday with first woman Jill Biden. They plan to fulfill with officers on the bottom and “grieve with the households and neighborhood members impacted by the tragic assault,” the White Home mentioned Friday.