New Orleans Injury Victim Recalls 'Screaming' for Help After Attack Left His Wheelchair in 'Pieces': 'Lucky to Be Alive'

01/03/2025 09:02 AM

"I came back and there [were] just people screaming and I was laying on the ground and I saw all my wheelchair parts on the ground beside me," the man said

One of the survivors from the deadly terror attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day — which left 15 people dead — is speaking out. 

Jeremi Sensky, who is recovering in the hospital after the attack, told NBC News that he had been returning to his hotel after meeting with friends earlier in the day when he found himself on the ground after a pickup truck plowed into a New Year's Day crowd on Bourbon Street.

"I heard just a massive noise, and I thought, 'Did something fall?,' " Sensky recalled to the outlet. "And I turned around… and when I turned around that's pretty much all that I remember until I was on the ground." 

"I came back and there [were] just people screaming and I was laying on the ground and I saw all my wheelchair parts on the ground beside me," he continued. "... I heard gunfire, and I remember in my mind I was just thinking, 'I hope I'm low enough on the ground — I thought that's why I was on the ground [to] hide from the gunfire."

Related: New Orleans Victim Had Dinner with Parents Before Attack: 'Happy New Year. Please Text Me When You Get Home'

Sensky, who was paralyzed from the waist down prior to the attack, told NBC News that he saw the truck in front of him, but "everything happened so fast" and he didn't know "what was going on." He said that it was still unclear how he survived the attack but that his right leg was broken into a "million pieces."

"I'm assuming I got hit by the truck, but honestly, nobody's ever told me that, so I don't know," Sensky said. "But my wheelchair was completely bashed and the pieces were all over the place, so something hit me."

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He noted that he had initially fallen on "his face" and "pushed" himself back on his back to try to get to safety. However, he had been left on the ground for quite a "while" and recalled "screaming" for someone to help "get me out of there." 

"I was screaming and finally somebody came over to me and said, 'Listen, I know you're hurt but you're alive.' That's what they said to me, 'You're alive,' " he said. "... He told me that a lot of people didn't make it and they were dead and I was lucky to be alive."

"It took a while, and I realized that it was a bad scene," he added.

Related: New Orleans Terror Attack Suspect Acted Alone, Pledged Allegiance to ISIS: FBI

The FBI has since said the attack was an act of terrorism. Authorities said the attacker, who has since been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, used his truck to barrel down Bourbon Street in the city's popular French Quarter around 3 a.m. local time on Wednesday before he was killed in a police shootout.

Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, had an ISIS flag in the truck he used in the attack, the FBI previously said. Authorities said Jabbar pledged his allegiance to ISIS in social media videos shortly before the attack, and that he had joined the terrorist group prior to the summer of 2024.

Some of the victims of the attack included Nicole Perez, mom to a 4-year-old; Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, an aspiring nurse; former Princeton football player Martin "Tiger" Bech; and Reggie Hunter, a proud father, per the BBC.