New Orleans terror attack: Prince William, Princess Catherine pay tribute to victim Edward Pettifer
The Prince and Princess of Wales have been left “shocked and saddened” after a 31-year-old man close to the royal family was killed in the horrific ISIS-inspired attack in New Orleans.
United States
Don't miss out on the headlines from United States. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Prince William and Princess Catherine have been left “shocked and saddened” after a 31-year-old man close to the royal family was killed in the horrific New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans.
Edward Pettifer, of Chelsea, London, the stepson of Prince William and Prince Harry’s childhood nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke, was one of the 14 people killed by an ISIS terrorist who rammed a vehicle into a crowd of revellers on Bourbon Street.
The future king released a touching tribute to Mr Pettifer’s family on social media, which read: “Catherine and I have been shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Ed Pettifer.
“Our thoughts and prayers remain with the Pettifer family and all those innocent people who have been tragically impacted by this horrific attack.”
It came after King Charles said he was “deeply saddened” following Mr Pettifer’s death, with the cause conformed by the New Orleans coroner as blunt force injuries.
His family said they are “devastated” by his death as they paid tribute to him as a “wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew and a friend to so many”.
They added: “We will all miss him terribly.
“Our thoughts are with the other families who have lost their family members due to this terrible attack.”
Tiggy Legge-Bourke worked as a nanny to brothers Prince William and Prince Harry between 1993 until 1999, the Telegraph reports.
She was regarded as a pivotal figure in the brothers’ lives following the tragic death of Princess Diana in 1997.
Other who lost their lives when ISIS-inspired attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar rammed revellers with a pick-up truck included Terrence Kennedy, 63, from New Orleans.
Kennedy’s niece, Monisha James, told CBS News that his family called around hospitals to try to find him before they identified his remains.
In a Facebook post, Monisha said Terrence was affectionately known as “Terry” and that he was a nice, quiet man. He was a sports fan.
Family members have also identified Elliot Wilkinson, 40, as another victim of the Bourbon Street attack.
“I know life was hard for you at times,” his brother Cecil Wilkinson, of Lafayette, wrote on Facebook.
“I wasn’t expecting to get the phone call.”
Brandon Taylor, rap music fan and a cook who was engaged to be married, was also killed.
Taylor, 43, was out with his fiancée, Heather Genusa, 38, and standing near a boom lift parked at the scene of the attack, when the pickup truck crashed into him, according to her.
“No one should ever have to die like that. He didn’t deserve it,” she said.
Taylor’s mother, 75-year-old Mary Guerrera, said he was a Christian man who loved music.
“It’s been very difficult,” she said. “I’m pretty devastated, and I’m just trying to get through this.”
The news comes after the mother of a 25-year-old man who was killed told her son she was worried about him in a heartbreaking last text before learning his fate.
“I love you. Happy New Year,” Matthew Tenedorio’s mother, Cathy, texted her son, CNN reported.
“You know, text me when you get home. Please don’t forget, we’re going to be worried about you.”
Tenedorio, an audiovisual technician at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, died from a gunshot wound sustained in the fatal attack when ISIS terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street.
Cathy said she last saw her son at dinner on New Year’s Eve before he went to Bourbon Street to ring in the New Year with friends.
“This morning the gravity of the situation really hit home, and I just realised that I will never see my son again,” his father, Lou, told CNN.
“I just broke down, and honestly, my heart is broken. It’s just so hard for me right now to live with this.”
Witnesses compared the carnage to a war zone as they recounted seeing dead bodies strewn on the ground while survivors sobbed and screamed into the night.
Among the dead are 28-year-old mother Nicole Perez, 18-year-old Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 37-year-old Reggie Hunter, 27-year-old Tiger Bech, reports local news publication Nola.com.
A GoFundMe to raise funeral costs for Ms Perez organised by her colleague Kimberly Usher described the slain mother as “so beautiful and full of life”.
“Her son Melo is now without his momma, and we are without our friend and dedicated employee,” she said.
“I’m hoping to get some help for her burial expenses and to help her son with expenses he will need to transition into a new living situation.”
Another victim is Cheyenne Dedeaux who had just finished high school and was due to start a nursing degree in January.
Instead she was killed as she celebrated New Year’s Eve in New Orleans with her cousin.
Family friend Zion Parsons said Dedeaux was a “little ball of sunshine” who was always trying to cheer up her friends.
Princeton Football mourns the loss of Tiger Bech ‘21.
— Princeton Football (@PrincetonFTBL) January 1, 2025
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and to all of the victims of the Bourbon Street attack. https://t.co/aLWMyd57lLpic.twitter.com/nUjzXUO3yT
Baton Rouge warehouse manager Reggie Hunter had decided at the last minute to spend New Year’s Eve in New Orleans and is the father of two sons, aged 12-years-old and 18-months.
His cousin Shirell Jackson said Mr Hunter was proud of his older son’s academic accomplishments and loved working out at the gym with friends and family.
“You are praying for a prosperous year in 2025,” she said. “And never do you think this is the news you are going to get.”
Bech was a former football player for Princeton University who graduated in 2021 before working as a finance broker in New York.
Bech, who suffered catastrophic injuries during the suspected terror attack, was kept on life support before his family arrived.
A 21-year-old and an 18-year-old who’d recently graduated high school have also been identified as victims.
Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, has been identified after his family and friends made several desperate social media posts in an effort to find him in the aftermath of the attack.
His former high school Archbishop Shaw High School confirmed he had been killed in the “senseless act of violence that occurred early this morning in the French Quarter.”
“We are asking the entire Archbishop Shaw family to pray for the repose of Hubert’s soul, his family and friends during this difficult time, and all those affected by this tragedy,” the school said on Facebook.
Episcopal School in Baton Rouge confirmed that recent graduate Kareem Badawi had also been killed.
“As an Episcopal community, we are called to support one another during times of great sorrow,” the letter from Head of School Carrie Steakley and Head Chaplain Patrick Edwards says. “I encourage you to hold these alumni, their families, and all who are grieving in your thoughts and prayers.”
Meanwhile, Tenedorio’s family said in a GoFundMe page that they were “shattered” by his death and said the 25-year-old spread positivity wherever he went.
“Matthew was a beloved son, brother, uncle, and friend whose laid-back spirit and infectious laughter brought joy to everyone around him,” said the GoFundMe page.
“A proud graduate of Pearl River Central High School, he made lasting memories and friendships during his time there. Matthew was always the one to lighten the mood, able to laugh off life’s challenges and spread positivity wherever he went.”
Christopher B. Roberts, president of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, said on the social platform X that 2023 graduate Drew Dauphin died in the attack.
“Words cannot convey the sorrow the Auburn Family feels for Drew’s family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time,” Mr Roberts said. “Our thoughts are with the Dauphin family and the families of all the victims of this senseless tragedy.”
Mr Dauphin was a supplier process engineer at the American Honda Motor Company in Birmingham, Alabama, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“A close friend said it best: ‘Drew will always now be in the sun at the lake that he loved so much,’” said the Dauphin family in a statement.
Audacy Inc account executive Billy DiMaio, 25, from Long Island in New York was the oldest of three children and the former lacrosse team captain at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.
His father Bill DiMaio, 53, told Nola.com that his oldest son was pure of heart, family orientated and loved helping others.
“He was a good, humble kid,” he said.
“He loved life.”
BODIES ‘TWISTED’ AND ‘HORRIBLY DISFIGURED’
New Year’s revellers are giving harrowing accounts of “twisted” and “horribly disfigured” bodies “laid up next to garbage cans” after a terrorist rammed his truck into crowds on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street.
Jimmy Cothran, who sought cover in a nightclub as the carnage unfolded, told NBC News he counted eight bodies on the street in the immediate aftermath.
“Dead right in front of us was someone’s mother, twisted, obviously deceased,” he said.
“One man, deceased, had tyre tracks across his back and when someone turned him over he had tire tracks across his stomach and was clearly crushed.”
“A little girl that we had seen dancing as we were walking up the street was as flat as a pillow,” he continued.
“It just kept going. Every eye shot — body, body, body, body. It was unbelievable.”
“When we got on the balcony, what we saw was insanity,” he told ABC. “I mean, something out of a movie. I mean, the graphic nature of it. It was unbelievable.”
Another witness, who only identified himself as Paul S., told ABC that he heard the sound of gunfire from his hotel room.
“We heard a ‘pop, pop, pop, pop’ sound, followed by a sound that sounded like fireworks going off, like a big firework all at once, and it turned out that was the crash,” he told the outlet.
Paul S. stepped out onto the hotel balcony, where he saw Bourbon Street “completely empty except for the bodies on the ground.”
“There’s litter all over the sidewalks, and then there were bodies laid up next to garbage cans and people rushing to give aid,” he said.
Parsons, 18, told CNN he was partying on Bourbon Street with friends when he heard the “screech of tyres” and then saw a truck “just barrelling down the street.”
“Real-life horror movie, everything the car is hitting, it’s getting thrown. It’s getting thrown up into the air and away and just under the car,” he said.
His group ducked for cover in a space between two bars. When he emerged from his hiding place, he said he saw one of his friends, a woman, lying in the street, badly injured but alive.
Farther down, there were “bodies littered throughout the entire street,” he added.
Parsons said he doesn’t know where emergency crews took his injured friend and doesn’t know her condition.
Police said the suspected attacker drove his truck through an intersection at the south end of Bourbon Street — a high-traffic spot crammed with nightclubs and strip clubs where thousands of revellers gather on holiday and weekend nights.
Normally, there would have been steel barriers placed in the intersection to prevent accidents and acts of violence, but they had been removed a few weeks prior, according to NOLA.com.
The city was in the process of replacing them ahead of the upcoming Super Bowl, which will be held in New Orleans.
But Bob Simms, who previously oversaw security projects for the French Quarter Management District, said even if those barriers had been in place, they may not have stopped the truck from smashing into the crowd.
“[The old barriers] were very ineffective. The track was always full of crap; beads and doubloons and God knows what else. Not the best idea,” Simms told NOLA.com.
Part of this story originally appeared on the New York Post.
Originally published as New Orleans terror attack: Prince William, Princess Catherine pay tribute to victim Edward Pettifer
Join the conversation
Turned to ash: Eerie photos reveal pain of fire-ravaged LA
Firefighters continue to battle the deadly Palisades and Eaton Fires as evacuation orders impact 200,000 and authorities warn California’s worst nightmare is not over yet. See the photos.
Read more
Kim K asks for pay rise for fireys amid water usage outrage
Reality star Kim Kardashian has made a plea for incarcerated firemen to receive a pay rise after being slammed for water wastage, as actress Eva Longoria gives a tearful update on her home.
Read more