Sugar Bowl kicks off after New Orleans terror attack
The College Football Playoff quarterfinal game between No. 2 Georgia and No. 5 Notre Dame is underway in New Orleans more than a day after a deadly terror attack on Bourbon Street claimed the lives of at least 15 people and injured dozens more.
The teams arrived at the Caesars Superdome, just a mile away from the crime scene in the French Quarter, for the Sugar Bowl on Thursday with heightened security after the FBI said a driver in a Ford pick-up truck plowed through a crowd of people in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in what is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
Law enforcement officials have ramped up security measures for Thursday’s Sugar Bowl after organizers made the decision to postpone the bowl game until Thursday in the best interest of public safety.
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New Orleans police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said in an interview with "TODAY" on Thursday that fans attending the game can expect to see as much security "if not more" than what was expected to be present at the Super Bowl next month.
"We are in partnership with many other partners," Kirkpatrick said, via ESPN. "Both local, federal, military police, and so forth, will be here, and so we're going to have absolutely hundreds of officers and staff lining our streets, lining Bourbon Street, lining the French Quarter. So, we are staffing up at the same level, if not more so, than we were preparing for [the] Super Bowl."
The Superdome, the home of the New Orleans Saints, will host the championship game on Feb. 9. The city has been working for years on an infrastructure package that will increase safety in anticipation of the thousands of fans that will flock to the city next month.
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Local law enforcement, FBI personnel and trained canines have been deployed to the stadium out of an abundance of caution.
Officials at a press conference on Thursday confirmed the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was working alone in the attack.
The FBI found a potential improvised explosive device (IED), weapons and an ISIS flag in Jabbar’s vehicle after he was declared dead on the scene. Other potential IED’s were found and recovered by officials.
The Sugar Bowl was initially scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET, but was pushed to an earlier start time on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET.
"Public safety is paramount," Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley said at a media briefing on Wednesday. "All parties all agree that it's in the best interest of everybody and public safety that we postpone the game."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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