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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An 18-year-old girl dreaming of becoming a nurse, a single mother, a father of two and a former Princeton football star suffered fatal injuries when the driver of a white pickup truck sped down Bourbon Street, packed with holiday revelers early Wednesday morning.

Officials have not yet released the names of the 15 people killed in the New Orleans New Year’s Day truck attack, but their families and friends have started sharing their stories. New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna said in a statement late Wednesday that they will release the names of the dead once autopsies are complete and they’ve talked with the next of kin. About 30 people were injured.
Nikyra Dedeaux

Zion Parsons of Gulfport, Mississippi, had been celebrating New Year’s Eve at his first night on Bourbon Street when a vehicle appeared and plowed into his friend, 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux, who he said had dreamed of becoming a nurse.

“A truck hit the corner and comes barreling through throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air,” Parsons, 18, told The Associated Press. “It hit her and flung her like at least 30 feet and I was just lucky to be alive.”

As the crowd scattered in the chaos he ran through a gruesome aftermath of bleeding and maimed victims, hearing gunshots and explosive sounds.

“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering” Parsons said. “People crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground. It was just insane, like the closest thing to a war zone that I’ve ever seen.”

Dedeaux was a responsible daughter — shorter than all her siblings but the one who helped take care of everyone, Parsons said. Dedeaux had a job at a hospital and was set to start college and begin working towards her goal of becoming a registered nurse.

“She had her mindset — she didn’t have everything figured out but she had the plan laid down,” Parsons said.
Reggie Hunter

A 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge was among the 15 people killed early Wednesday when a pickup truck careened down Bourbon Street in what officials called an act of terror.

Reggie Hunter had just left work and headed to celebrate New Year’s with a cousin when the attack happened, his first cousin Shirell Jackson told Nola.com.

Hunter was killed and his cousin was injured, Jackson said.
Tiger Bech

A former high school and college football player from Louisiana was among those who died after a driver rammed a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ French Quarter, according to an education official.

Tiger Bech, 27, died late Wednesday morning at a New Orleans hospital, according to local media outlets citing Kim Broussard, the athletic director at St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Lafayette. Bech attended the high school, where he played wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner and defensive back, NOLA.com reported.

Bech played football at Princeton University before graduating in 2021. Most recently he was working as an investment trader at a New York brokerage firm.

Princeton football coach Bob Surace said Wednesday that he had been texting with Bech’s father, sharing memories of the player, who was a school kick returner and receiver from 2017 to 2019. He earned All-Ivy League honors as a returner.

“He might be the first Tiger to ever play for us, and that nickname kind of described him as a competitor,” Surace told ESPN. The school’s nickname is the Tigers. “He was somebody that somehow, like in the key moments, just excelled and was full of energy, full of life.”

Bech has been working at Seaport Global, where company spokesperson Lisa Lieberman could not confirm his death. But she told The Associated Press that “he was extremely well regarded by everybody who knew him.”

Bech’s younger brother, Jack, is a top wide receiver at Texas Christian University.

In a response to a KLFY-TV report posted on X about Tiger Bech’s death, a post from an account for a Jack Bech on the social media site said: “Love you always brother ! You inspired me everyday now you get to be with me in every moment. I got this family T, don’t worry. This is for us.”
Nicole Perez

Nicole Perez was a single mother to a 4-year-old son working hard to make life better for her family when she was killed in the New Orleans truck attack, according to her employer.

Perez, who was in her late 20s, was recently promoted to manager at Kimmy’s Deli in Metarie, Louisiana and “was really excited about it,” deli owner Kimberly Usher said in a phone interview with AP. Usher confirmed Perez’s death through her sister, who also works for her.

Usher said Perez would walk in the morning to the deli, which opened at breakfast time, and would ask lots of questions about the business side of the operations. She also was permitted to bring her son, Melo, to work, where during breaks she taught him basic learning skills.

“She was a really good mom,” said Usher, who started a GoFundMe account to cover Perez’s burial costs and to help with expenses for her son that “he will need to transition into a new living situation,” the donation request says.

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Jack Brook in New Orleans, Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Martha Bellisle in Seattle contributed to this report.

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The story has been corrected to change Tiger Bech’s age from 28 to 27.

The suspect in a deadly attack on New Year’s revelers in New Orleans has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S.-born citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas, according to the FBI.

At least 15 people were killed and over two dozen injured after a rented Ford pickup truck was driven through a crowd on Bourbon Street at a high rate of speed early Wednesday, officials said.

Efforts continued late into the evening to learn more about the suspect and the incident.

Those efforts included the breach and search of two locations: an Airbnb in New Orleans that may be tied to the suspect and a residence in Houston that has been linked to Jabbar, sources told ABC News.

The Airbnb was involved in some kind of fire or detonation earlier in the day, the sources said, which raised concern about the possibility that there more explosives linked to the suspect that are yet to be recovered.

FBI Houston released a statement on X saying that it is working with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a court-authorized search of an address near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive in Houston.

“At this time, no arrests have been made and FBI personnel will be at the scene for several more hours,” the statement said, while urging the public to stay away from the area.

Specialized teams focusing on the operation include “the FBI SWAT team, Crisis Negotiators, Special Agent Bomb Technicians, Tactical Operations Center, Evidence Response Team, and a group of counterterrorism investigators,” according to FBI Houston.

An ISIS flag was found on a pole on the truck’s trailer hitch, and authorities are working to determine whether the deceased suspect had any affiliation with terrorist organizations.

However, authorities do believe Jabbar was radicalized in the last few years, a senior official told ABC News late Wednesday, and that radicalization may have been exacerbated by the Israel-Hamas war.

Addressing the nation from Camp David on Wednesday evening, President Joe Biden said, “The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he’s inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”

“The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle, which he rented to conduct this attack,” Biden said. “Possible explosives were found in the vehicle as well, and more explosives were found nearby.”

However, he cautioned, “The situation is very fluid and the investigation is in its preliminary stage.”

The FBI is studying videos the suspect appears to have recorded while driving from Texas to Louisiana, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The suspect is not seen but is allegedly heard talking about his divorce and about a desire to kill members of his family before ultimately deciding to carry out the attack on Bourbon Street, the sources said.

The suspect is also heard talking about ISIS, the sources said.

After barreling through the crowd over a three-block stretch, the suspect allegedly got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident told ABC News.

Officers returned fire, killing the suspect, police said. At least two police officers were shot and wounded, authorities said.

“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said at a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

She said the driver was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

Weapons and potential IEDs were located in the suspect’s vehicle and other potential IEDs were located in the French Quarter, according to the FBI, which is leading the investigation. As of now, two IEDs have been found and rendered safe, the FBI said.

Investigators found homemade pipe bombs at the scene of the Bourbon Street attack, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The crude devices contained coils and nails, the sources said. Authorities also found a grenade, which is among the items tested for viability, sources said.

In addition to the assault rifle, Jabbar was allegedly armed with a handgun, sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the horrific incident as a “terrorist attack” and the FBI said it was being investigated as an act of terror.

The suspect is not believed to be “solely responsible” for the attack, according to the FBI, which said it is pursuing leads to identify any of his associates.

“There are other potential suspects out there, as well,” said New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno on Wednesday. “So we do have really a multi-agency effort at this point to identify anyone else who may have had anything to do with this particular incident and make sure that justice does prevail and that these individuals are caught and targeted immediately.”

New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle ramming, leading the FBI to conclude the driver of the pickup truck did not act alone in the attack, law enforcement sources told ABC News early Wednesday.

Individuals appearing in one such video relating to the area where potential explosive devices were thought to have been planted are being considered unrelated passersby as of Wednesday evening, federal authorities said, though the investigation remains ongoing.

Investigators are urgently working to identify any individuals appearing on camera in potentially related areas and will take any potential persons of interest into custody, sources said.

“It’s all hands on deck to find anyone else who had any type of involvement in this,” Moreno said.

In his remarks on Wednesday evening, Biden confirmed that the law enforcement community was continuing to investigate any “connections, associations or co-conspirators.”

Additionally, Biden said, authorities were looking into any possible connection with the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

“Thus far there is nothing to report on that score,” Biden said, adding that law enforcement was working to “ensure that there is no remaining threat to the American people.”

The president added that, regardless of the suspect’s actions or intent, “the spirit of our New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated.”

Jabbar served in human resources and information technology roles in the Army from 2007 to 2015, during which he deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, an Army spokesperson confirmed to ABC News. He continued as an IT specialist in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, the spokesperson said. His listed jobs were not direct combat roles.

Jabbar is believed to have been discharged honorably from the Army, though investigators are still looking into his military record, the FBI said.

The suspect had earlier enlisted in the Navy, in August 2024, though he never went to boot camp and was discharged from the delayed entry program one month later, according to a Navy spokesperson.

In a YouTube video posted in 2020, Jabbar says he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and spent a decade working in the U.S. military before becoming a Realtor in the Houston area. His years in the military were spent working as a human resources and IT specialist, Jabbar says in the video, which has since been removed from YouTube.

The suspect has been living in the Houston area, according to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Authorities with the FBI and Harris County Sheriff’s Office were “conducting law enforcement activity” in an area of north Houston in connection with the New Orleans attack, FBI Houston said Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect worked for Deloitte, having served in a “staff-level role” since being hired in 2021, a spokesperson for the firm confirmed to ABC News.

“We are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation.”

His title at Deloitte was “senior solution specialist,” according to a source.
Used Turo to rent truck used in attack

The truck used in the attack had a Texas license plate, according to Carter.

The vehicle appeared to be a Ford F-150 Lightning, an electric vehicle. It appears the truck was rented through the Turo app — a carsharing company, according to Rodrigo Diaz, the owner of the truck.

Diaz told ABC News he rented the truck to an individual through the app and is currently talking to the FBI. He declined further comment.

Diaz’s wife, Dora Diaz, told ABC News that she and her husband are devastated by the incident.

“My husband rents cars through the Turo app. I can’t tell you anything else. I’m here with my kids, and this is devastating,” Dora Diaz said.

ABC News has reached out to Turo.

The suspect rented the truck on Monday, according to Patrick.

“[We] have learned he was driving the rented truck in Houston before heading to New Orleans,” Patrick said.

“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” a Turo spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday evening. “We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals.”

The company said it is actively cooperating with authorities and the investigation.

ABC News’ Matt Seyler and Jared Kofsky contributed to this report.

The man suspected of carrying out the New Year’s attack in New Orleans, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had a checkered marital history punctuated by multiple divorces and financial difficulty, according to court records reviewed by ABC News.

The records also show that after his military service, Jabbar worked for two of the nation’s largest professional services firms, Ernst & Young and Deloitte, as he aimed to grow his own fledgling real estate business.

Jabbar has been identified by the FBI as the suspect in the deadly attack on New Year’s revelers. At least 15 people were killed and over two dozen injured after a rented Ford pickup truck was driven through a crowd on Bourbon Street at a high rate of speed early Wednesday, officials said.

Jabbar, who police said was killed during the attack, was a 42-year-old U.S.-born citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas, according to the FBI.

As of 2022, while employed by Deloitte, documents show Jabbar was making close to $125,000 a year — a salary which was chipped away at by court-ordered payments for his children from a past marriage and weighed down by credit card and mortgage debt.

In 2012 in Harris County, Texas, ex-wife Nakedra Charrllee Jabbar successfully sued him for child support payments for the couple’s two girls, who were eight and three years old at the time, according to court records.

Four years later, in 2016, Jabbar filed for divorce from another wife, Tiera Symone Jabbar, in Dekalb County, Georgia. The complaint form, filled out in handwriting, says the two married in Sept. 2013 but separated less than two and a half years later in Feb. 2016. Under grounds for divorce, Jabbar checked the box on the form that read “our marriage is irretrievably broken,” adding that the pair “can no longer live together and there is no hope that we will get back together.”

In July 2020, in Fort Bend County, Texas, Jabbar filed for divorce from wife Shaneen Chantil Jabbar, whom he married in Nov. 2017, according to court filings. But the pair jointly sought to dismiss the suit only a month after it was filed, saying they “both no longer desire[d] to prosecute his/her respective suits against the other party” — a request that the court granted.

However, when Jabbar again filed for divorce a year later, his then-wife responded with a counterclaim that sparked a lengthy battle of briefs indicating apparent bad blood between them that may have at least in part stemmed from financial difficulties.

In one filing, Shaneen’s lawyer accused Jabbar of “flagrant disregard” of his financial duties to their household — alleging that during their marriage, Jabbar “was entrusted with the management, control, and disposition of substantially all community estate funds.”

Though Shaneen “trusted and believed” her husband “would faithfully execute” his management, he violated their “fiduciary relationship,” his soon-to-be ex’s lawyer alleged.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar “has intentionally and in flagrant disregard of the duties as manager and trustee of the community funds mismanaged the community estate, all in fraud of” his wife’s financial interest, she said.

Shaneen’s filings also claimed that Jabbar withheld important information from the court about his retirement savings, with one record from July 2022 alleging Jabbar had failed to produce statements showing his participation in the retirement plan at Ernst & Young, where the filing indicates Jabbar worked prior to joining Deloitte.

The acrimonious split from Shaneen also featured Jabbar breaking with his own laywer. Attorney Robert Tsai — who represented Jabbar in his 2012 divorce — withdrew from the case in Sept. 2021, citing an inability to “effectively communicate” with his client “in a manner consistent with good attorney-client relations.” Court records indicate Jabbar represented himself through the remainder of the divorce proceedings.

In court records Jabbar laid out some of his financial difficulties as he explained why he sought a divorce settlement that would have the couple selling their house and splitting the proceeds. The property management firm Jabbar founded, Blue Meadow Properties, was failing to produce any revenue and was in fact losing money, per his submissions to the court.

“Time is of the essence,” he wrote in an email to his wife’s lawyer on Jan 6, 2022. “l can not afford the house payment. It is past due in excess of $27,000 and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce. The home was not in default at the time we agreed to the temporary orders. l misunderstood the terms of the loan modification I had applied for at the time.”

Jabbar’s filings in the 2022 divorce from Shaneen show he was already responsible for paying $2,200 in child support per month following his divorce from Nakedra. Ultimately, Jabbar was ordered to pay an additional $1,353 a month in child support to help care for the son he shared with Shaneen, according to the documents.

The court ordered Deloitte to withhold the extra child support from his paychecks.

His ex-wife Shaneen got the house, despite Jabbar’s asking that the asset be sold and the proceeds split, court records show. She received primary custody of their son, though Jabbar got visitation rights, the records said.

During their divorce, court records show both Jabbard and Shaneen took four hours’ instruction on parenting from the “Texas Cooperative Parenting Course,” and each received a certificate indicating they had “successfully completed” the course and were “hereby committed to working with the other parent in the best interest of their child/children.” Jabbar’s is dated Aug. 20, 2021. Shaneen’s is dated Aug. 30, 2021.

ABC News attempted on Wednesday to contact Nakedra, Tiera and Shaneen. Phone calls or text messages were not returned.

Law enforcement agencies are expanding their investigation into the New Year’s ramming attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street which killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more in the early hours of Wednesday.

City and federal officials said an Army veteran — identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42 — was “hell-bent” on killing as many people as possible. The suspect drove a pickup truck around a parked police car serving as a barricade and plowed into crowds of revelers, officials said.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during a Wednesday news conference that security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.

The suspect mowed down dozens of people over a three-block stretch on the world-famous thoroughfare while firing into the crowd, police said.

The alleged attacker then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials said. Jabbar was also armed with a handgun, sources told ABC News.

Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, sources said. At least two police officers were injured, one by gunfire and the other when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities said.

Althea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans field office, said investigators do not believe Jabbar acted alone.

“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Duncan said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates. That’s why we need the public’s help. We are asking if anybody had any interaction with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us.”

Duncan also said improvised explosives devices and other weapons were found inside the pickup truck used in the attack. She said two additional IEDs were discovered in the French Quarter and rendered safe.

The IEDs found in and around the scene on Bourbon Street were apparently determined to be viable, and investigators were looking for more in the city’s French Quarter, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The FBI said two devices were found and rendered safe. Crude pipe bombs stuffed with coils and nails were found at the scene along with a grenade, sources said.

New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle attack, which led them to believe the suspect did not act alone, sources said. Investigators said they were urgently working to identify the individuals who were seen on camera and to take them into custody.

The FBI offices in New Orleans and Houston released statements late Wednesday announcing searches related to the attack.

“FBI special agents and our law enforcement partners are currently conducting a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states,” the FBI’s New Orleans field office said in a statement, adding that they planned to hand over the New Orleans crime scene to local authorities by Thursday morning.

Meanwhile the FBI in Houston posted on X that they and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office were “continuing a court-authorized search of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive.”

“At this time, no arrests have been made, and FBI personnel will be at the scene for several more hours,” the post continued.

Authorities are also working to determine whether there may be a link between the New Orleans attack and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion on Wednesday outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel in Nevada, which is being investigated as a possible act of terror, an official said.

The Cybertruck that exploded was rented via the Turo app, as was the truck used in the New Orleans attack, sources told ABC News.

On Wednesday afternoon, the FBI in Houston and the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office, posted a message on social media that they are “currently conducting law enforcement activity near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive in north Houston” related to the New Orleans attack.

“We have secured a perimeter in that area and are asking people to avoid the area,” the notice said. “FBI Houston personnel and specialized teams will be on-site for several hours. This activity is related to this morning’s New Orleans attack, but due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information can be provided.

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, decried what he called a “heinous act” when addressing the New Orleans attack Wednesday night at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

Biden said that the FBI told him that “mere hours before the attack, [Jabbar] posted videos on social media indicating that he’s inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”

Biden also said “law enforcement and the intelligence community” were investigating whether there was “any possible connection” between the New Orleans attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas.

“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” Biden said.

Biden said that the New Orleans suspect was “an American citizen, born in Texas. He served in the United States Army on active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve, until a few years ago.”

The FBI is studying the videos Biden referenced in his remarks, which the suspect appears to have recorded while driving from Texas to Louisiana, law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News.

The videos are dark so the suspect isn’t seen but he can be heard talking about his divorce and a desire to kill members of his family before ultimately deciding to carry out the attack on Bourbon Street, according to the law enforcement sources.

The suspect is also heard talking about ISIS, the sources said.

New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna released a statement late Wednesday afternoon that said, “As of now, 15 people are deceased.”

“It will take several days to perform all autopsies. Once we complete the autopsies and talk with the next of kin, we will release the identifications of the victims,” McKenna’s statement continued.

Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, told ABC News earlier Wednesday afternoon that the number of people killed in the incident had risen from 10 to 15. He said another 25 people were hospitalized with injuries.

A new exhibit titled “77 Minutes in Their Shoes” honors the victims of the Robb Elementary shooting. (Sarah Sudhoff)

(UVALDE, TEXAS) — When authorities were trying to identify the victims of the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, many of the children could only be identified by the shoes they were wearing that day.

“How often do you take your child to school and not pay attention to what they’re wearing that day?” Kimberly Rubio, mother of victim Alexandria “Lexi” Rubio, said to ABC News.

A new exhibit titled “77 Minutes in Their Shoes” underscores this question to raise gun violence awareness while honoring the 21 victims of the Uvalde mass shooting on May 24, 2022. The exhibit, which runs Jan. 10 to Jan. 19 at the Canopy Projects Gallery in Austin, is a collaboration between Houston artist Sarah Sudhoff and Lives Robbed, a gun violence prevention non-profit created by families of the children killed in the Uvalde mass shooting.

“I thought, ‘What are children wearing when they’re gunned down in schools? And how do we bring this to the attention of Americans?’ And so that’s kind of how the idea was born,” Rubio, who is also president of Lives Robbed, said.

The “77 Minutes” in the exhibit’s name refers to how long the gunman was in the school before police confronted him and ended the massacre.

Sudhoff, a Cuban American artist whose work often merges themes of motherhood and gender with social issues like gun violence and domestic violence, told ABC News that the exhibit was partly influenced by others showcasing the clothing women wore on the night they were sexually assaulted.

However, in this exhibit, photographs of the shoes and portraits of family members with the shoes will be on display. Thirteen of the 21 families participated in the exhibit and all photographs were shot by Sudhoff.

The photographer said she chose to print the images on sheer fabric hanging from the ceiling so that the public can experience the portraits in a more direct manner.

“These portraits are on fabric, and they are thin and you can see through them and maybe you’ll see somebody else through them,” Sudhoff said.

She added, “I intentionally did not make them rigid, I did not make them hard, I wanted you to see the public through them, I wanted them to move because these families are still evolving, they’re on an endless journey, they’re on this unfortunate, heartbreaking journey, and they’re constantly moving and shifting and morphing.”

Although “77 Minutes in Their Shoes” honors the victims of the mass shooting, Rubio said creating the exhibit still posed moments that were emotionally challenging.

“The hardest part was when we took the photos at Robb Elementary featuring the three moms [Rubio, Veronica Mata, and Gloria Cazares] and our girls’ shoes,” Rubio said. “That was difficult—to be back at Robb, to think about taking them to school that morning and the shoes they were wearing, walking into that school and never walking back out.”

The exhibit’s opening weekend also includes panels tackling topics such as gun violence prevention, legislation, art activism, and grief. Arnulfo “Arnie” Reyes, who taught at Robb Elementary School and was the sole survivor of classroom 111, is speaking on a panel titled “The Classroom After Tragedy” to talk about his former students and his recovery.

“It’s always important for me to be one of the voices that supports this and speaks on behalf of the students that are no longer here … I might have a little bit more of an impact just because I was there,” Reyes said to ABC News.

Reyes said he tries to spread awareness and support the families of the victims every opportunity he gets, and he hopes that by participating in the exhibit, that he can continue to advocate for his students and inspire change.

“I would like for people to come with an open mind to see the shoes, to see this is all they have left,” Reyes said. “Something that I said from the beginning is that I would try to do anything that I can do to not let these babies die in vain, and I hope that people join me in that journey to not let anybody else die in vain and to change things.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports that Harris County had the highest real GDP of any county in the state in 2023, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The county’s real GDP was nearly $430 million, which was around $125 million more than second-place Dallas County. Montgomery County and Fort Bend County also rounded out the top 10 while Brazoria County and Galveston County give the Houston metro area five spots among the top 20 Texas counties in GDP. Nationally, only Los Angeles County in California and New York County in New York had higher GDPs than Harris County. Harris County itself is also greater than a majority of the 50 states.

When including the entire Houston metro area, the region has a real GDP of about $550 million. However, that is only seventh in the country and second in the state behind the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The region’s real GDP growth rate from 2022 to 2023 ranked third among metropolitan areas with at least 1 million people behind Seattle and Oklahoma City. Among all metropolitan areas, the Beaumont-Port Arthur area and the College Station-Bryan area rank in the top 20 for GDP growth.

DALLAS – The Dallas Morning News reports that a few years ago, with the nation in the throes of a pandemic, Sen. Nathan Johnson’s effort to add 1 million low-income Texans to Medicaid drew support from a handful of Republicans in the GOP-dominated Texas Legislature. Most of those lawmakers are gone from the Capitol, an exodus that strips away at the Dallas Democrat’s slim hope of seeing Texas join 40 other states and Washington, D.C. in expanding Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Even so, Johnson filed his bill for the upcoming session — his third try — just in case the leaders of an increasingly conservative Texas Legislature change their minds. “I just want a million people to get health insurance, I want health insurance premiums to come down, and I want to do it without levying any new tax on the people,” Johnson said.

“The strategy is to present something that would allow Republican leadership to say, ‘This is a win for all of us.’ I think if there were a signal from leadership, then we would see Republicans fall in line behind this,” he said. Senate Bill 232 would create the Live Well Texas program, which would expand Medicaid while adding elements passed in other conservative states – including incentives to encourage self-sufficiency through health savings accounts, employment assistance and rewards for healthy behaviors. Additionally, the legislation seeks to increase reimbursements to health care providers who see Medicaid patients, potentially expanding access to care for Medicaid patients by bringing more hospitals, doctors and others to the program. In 2021, Johnson’s Medicaid-expansion bill had no Republican support in the Senate, but nine GOP House members joined 67 Democrats as co-authors of an identical House bill. The legislation was bottled up in a committee. Johnson tried again in 2023, but the effort gathered less bipartisan momentum during a particularly contentious session. “I was very serious about passing it when I first filed it, and we had a really good run at it, but I don’t see how the situation has improved,” Johnson said. “But I want something out there to say that if this state wants a conservative way to bring home its own tax dollars and improve the health of its population and bring down health premiums and stabilize family finances and help set people on a path to independence, there is a way to do it that has conservative bona fides.” Opponents of expanding Medicaid say the program is mismanaged, financially unstable, too expensive and fosters government reliance. They also argue that expansion does not improve health outcomes and prioritizes able-bodied adults over children and adults with disabilities who rely heavily on the program.