A suspect is in custody after 28 people were injured Saturday when a vehicle plowed into a crowd watching the Krewe of Endymion parade in the Mid-City section of New Orleans, police said.
Police Chief Michael Harrison said the suspect is being investigated for driving while intoxicated. Harrison was asked twice by the media if terrorism was suspected. While he didn’t say "No" he did say it looks like a case of DWI.
"We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated," he said.
Twenty-one people were hospitalized after the crash with five victims in guarded condition. Seven others declined to be hospitalized, city Emergency Services Director, Dr. Jeff Selder said.
Scene where car plowed into Mardi Gras parade crowd
At least a dozen people were injured when a vehicle crashed into a crowd along the Endymion parade on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
At least a dozen people were injured when a vehicle crashed into a crowd along the Endymion parade on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
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The victims range in age from as young as 3 or 4-years-old to adults in their 30s and 40s, said Selder.
Among the injured was one New Orleans police officer. Harrison said the officer, who was on duty, was undergoing tests to determine the extent of her injuries. She was in "good spirits," he said.
One woman at the scene told The New Orleans Advocate that a silver truck whisked by her just feet away as she was walking through the intersection.
Carrie Kinsella said, "I felt a rush it was so fast."
Mardi Gras crash Gerald Herbert / AP
Police talk to a man sitting in a car that was struck by a pickup truck, that slammed into a crowd and other vehicles, causing multiple injuries, during the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
Police talk to a man sitting in a car that was struck by a pickup truck, that slammed into a crowd and other vehicles, causing multiple injuries, during the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans, Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017.
(Gerald Herbert / AP)
Twenty-year-old Kourtney McKinnis told the Advocate that the driver of the truck seemed almost unaware of what he had just done.
"He was just kind of out of it," she said.
Associated Press writer Kevin McGill contributed to this story.
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