Many Hoosiers are in New Orleans in anticipation of the Sugar Bowl game which has now been postponed until Thursday. That includes a Hoosier Notre Dame fan who dined on Bourbon Street Tuesday night.
“I didn’t know anything about it until this morning,” said Michael Murphy who traveled to New Orleans for the game. “I slept in and woke up. People are texting me, ‘Are you okay? ‘Are you okay?’”
Michael Murphy decided to turn in early the night of New Year’s Eve which ended up being a blessing in disguise.
“I left the restaurant around 8:00 p.m. because I didn’t want to be on Bourbon Street,” he said. “I am beyond the frat boy age of drinking until 3:00 in the morning.”
Before turning in for the night, he said there was a large police presence even before the attack happened.
“There were a lot of cops,” he said. “Hundreds of cops. I was thinking to myself this has to be the safest city in America tonight.”
But unfortunately just a few hours later is when the unthinkable happened. A white pick up truck intentionally rammed into a crowd of people killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more.
“There are hundreds if not thousands of leads to be followed up on in the next few days,” said Doug Kouns, a former FBI agent who lives in central Indiana.
“Everyone is taking an extra hard look at everything right now. Investigators are putting his whole life under a microscope right now. His friends, his family, work associates, social media, internet history, who he has been talking to, his phones, bank records. These are all things that take time to get the records, to process them, to analyze them, to figure out if there is anything there that needs further action.”
At this point, the FBI believes the suspect did not act alone. The FBI also reported in a recent press release that “an ISIS flag was located in the vehicle.”
“It could be a couple things,” Kouns said. “This could be an actual ISIS plan, sponsored kind of thing or it could be a lone-wolf sympathizer who has become radicalized, someone that sympathizes with the ISIS movement.”
Kouns goes on to say that this is something the FBI will be investigating thoroughly over the next few days.
“Those are the things the FBI and other investigative agencies are working on,” he said. “Is this a lone actor? Is it part of a bigger plot to conduct even bigger actions?”
Another big part of the investigation that authorities are looking into right now is who could have been working with the suspect.
“Typically even if someone is acting alone, they have some sort of support network or inspiration or motivation behind them so that’s what investigators are looking for now,” Kouns said.
In the meantime, people like Michael Murphy are just grateful to be alive.
“Having the game delayed by one night is a minor inconvenience compared to what a lot of families are going through,” he said.
The Sugar Bowl has been pushed back to 4:00 p.m. on Thursday. Murphy made arrangements to still go to the game.
