Notre Dame football fans head home from New Orleans with heavy heart after New Year's attack
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Many Notre Dame football fans traveled to New Orleans to see the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day. Now they're coming home with heavy hearts after the deadly vehicle attack on Bourbon Street.
Families arriving back in the Chicago area Thursday said it's been a traumatic experience. They hope the Sugar Bowl game will be a positive moment in a very difficult week.
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Fourteen people have died and dozens more were injured when a man drove a white truck through crowded Bourbon Street, which was still packed with revelers, hours into the new year early Wednesday morning.
Many of the people in those crowds were Notre Dame football fans who flew to the Big Easy to catch the game.
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"The Notre Dame games for us specifically, are like family events, and time we spend with the kids and you know, we got to keep moving forward," said Chris Parente.
Parente and his two sons spent the week down south, but ended up missing the game after the Sugar Bowl was postponed in the wake of the attack. The suspect was shot and killed by police.
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"it's just a weird feeling to see that and you know, to see New Orleans with no music and Bourbon Street shut down is very weird," said Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott.
Mayor McDermott said his hotel was only a few blocks away from where the attack happened. He said as someone who was elected to serve his community, he's already working on protecting his own community.
"Festival of the Lakes, Hammond holds every year. We have 100,000 people pass through our park with major acts. I texted my entire security team yesterday, telling them that we need to harden it. It is hard already, and we're always talking about this kind of thing happening," he said.
Initial reports show at least 30 people were injured in the attack. McDermott said in the wake of the tragedy, it's time to come together as a country.
Our main team, which is United States of America, that that team is succeeding. We gotta stop fighting with each other and focus on the people that want to kill us," he said.
McDermott said he decided to stay in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl game before traveling back to Hammond later Thursday night. He said he had some concern for his own safety at the game, but said it's important to keep moving forward.
