A second lawsuit has been filed against New Orleans city officials and the contractors performing construction work in the French Quarter over the New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street that left 14 dead and several injured. Plaintiffs’ attorney Antonio Romanucci says the people celebrating that night believed steps were taken to prevent a terrorist attack.
“Their trust in stepping into a crowded public place turned to horror, traumatic injuries, emotional trauma, death, and everyone’s worst nightmare. And it never had to happen. If public safety officials, municipal leaders, city contactors had properly done their jobs, so many lives would never have been upended,” Romanucci said.
The lawsuit claims the $40 million dollars in security upgrades were mismanaged, leaving Bourbon Street unprotected from a vehicle-based attack.
“So, for nearly a decade New Orleans elected safety officials and public safety employees, along with their hired contractors, knew of the risks to the French Quarter. That’s why we keep saying it was foreseeable, because they knew,” Romanucci said.
Romanucci says the city of New Orleans has no problem with inviting tourists to the French Quarter, but they failed in their duty to care for them by allowing a truck to drive around a police car and unleash terror.
“The city of New Orleans, and the contractors who had the duty to protect them, they let someone slip through that crack, and that was foreseeable. and look what it did. And honestly folks, I don’t think anyone should be shocked,” Romanucci said.
Well-known New Orleans personal injury attorney Morris Bart filed a similar lawsuit earlier this month.
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