Adelaide woman Michelle Tobin speaks on horror of New Orleans terrorist attack
An Adelaide woman has revealed how close she came to being caught up in the midst of the terror attack at one of New Orleans's most iconic spots.
SA News
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Adelaide woman Michelle Tobin choose a rooftop bar to watch the New Year’s Eve fireworks and avoid the crowds in teeming New Orleans.
That decision could have saved her life and it’s a sliding doors moment that echoes that of Adelaide expat couple Patrick Khoo and Christina Bellantoni, who were also in New Orleans at the time of the attack.
Shamsud Din Jabbar ploughed through crowds on the famed Bourbon St killing 15 people and injuring 35 more in an apparent terror act.
“We had been saying to each other ‘how lucky are we that we’re here’, not really understanding, that those words meant something quite different the next morning,” Ms Tobin, who was there celebrating her cousin Nikki Foy’s postponed 50th birthday trip, said.
“The intention was that we were in New Orleans and then it was, wow we’re lucky we were on a rooftop.”
When the pair woke up in 2025 to their phones “buzzing”.
“People at home started hearing the news … everyone’s like ‘are you safe?’ … it’s very surreal,” the 49-year-old said.
“We’ve probably been in shock and a bit stunned all day, sort of watching it going, wow, we were literally right there, three hours before it happened, it’s horrific.”
The New Orleans community has been deeply affected by the attack said Ms Tobin.
“People are walking around pretty quiet, humbled, nodding at each other,” she said.
“Everyone just knows how horrible it was, I think we’re all a bit stunned for the people who were killed and injured and affected in any way.”
Ms Tobin and her cousin Ms Foy arrived in New Orleans on Sunday, it was their first stop on their US adventure.
“It’s a very friendly city, it’s got a really eclectic group of people,” Ms Tobin said.
As locals and tourists saw in the New Year and readied for the big college football game, the attacker drove down the popular street “at a very fast pace”, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
“He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” she said.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could.”
Jabbar – who was a US citizen was grew up in Texas and spent a decade in the Army – was dressed in military gear and had an Islamic flag on the rented vehicle used in the attack.
The attacker was shot dead.
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