On New Year's Eve, New Orleans was the scene of a car-ramming attack that claimed the lives of 14 people. Among them, many young people under 30 went to celebrate the arrival of 2025. This festive moment turned into tragedy, leaving bereaved families and a city in shock. Several American media have collected testimonies from relatives of four victims whose life journeys were brutally interrupted.
Among these missing young people is Ni'kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, aged 18. Originally from Mississippi, she had just finished her studies and was preparing to begin training as a nurse. Without telling her loved ones, she decided to go to New Orleans to celebrate the New Year with a cousin and a friend. “When your parents tell you not to go out, I implore you, listen to them! It was a terrorist act and my baby is now gone,” his devastated mother, Melissa Dedeaux, said on her Facebook page.
Broken lives and destinies
Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, also decided to take advantage of this special night in the streets of New Orleans. While his sister and mother hoped to see him celebrate New Year's Eve with them, he preferred to join friends to admire fireworks. “We joked because he preferred to go there rather than stay with us,” remembers his sister Brooke. In the morning, they learned of the attack and tried to contact him, in vain. His former high school, Archbishop Shaw, praised the memory of a young man who was “generous, turned towards others and unpretentious”.
Another victim is Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, a former American football player at Princeton University, where he was well liked by his teammates. After graduating, he began a career in finance, working as a trader on Wall Street. His nickname, “Tiger,” reflected both his belonging to Princeton, of which the tiger is the mascot, and his combative temperament on the field. “He was a tiger in every sense of the word, a beloved teammate and a caring friend,” recalled his former coach, Charles Caldwell. His mother, Michelle Bench, says she had just enough time to say goodbye to him in the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Questions about security at large events
Kareem Badawi, 18, was a mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama. With a group of friends from Baton Rouge, he decided to celebrate the new year in New Orleans to “do something special,” says his father, Belal Badawi. “He loved others, he was always surrounded. He was a sociable boy and appreciated by everyone,” he confided to the New York Times. The University of Alabama expressed its “deep sadness” over this “heartbreaking loss.”
Our file on terrorist attacks
While the investigation progresses to understand the motivations for this act, the pain of the families remains immense. The violence of this tragedy, which occurred in a festive context, raises questions about security during large popular gatherings in the United States.
