One minute, Jeremi Sensky was returning to his hotel on New Orleans’ iconic Bourbon Street. The next, he was flung face-first to the ground with the sound of gunfire around him.
“It’s really weird but, because there were so many people in one place, it went through my mind that it could happen,” he told NBC of the New Year’s Day attack that left 15 people dead and dozens more wounded after a pickup truck drove into a crowd.
Speaking with NBC from a hospital with two broken legs, Sensky said he never saw the pickup truck coming. He was preparing to reunite with his friends and call it a night when he heard “a massive noise,” making him think something had fallen.
He said he still doesn’t know whether the truck, which plowed into dozens of people at a high rate of speed, hit him. All he remembers is being thrown facedown on the ground and seeing his wheelchair, which he’s used for years due to a prior paralyzation, smashed to pieces around him.
Then there was the terrifying sound of gunfire, he said. Police said the suspect engaged in a shootout with officers moments after crashing his truck, which Sensky said came to a rest near him.
“I remember in my mind I was thinking, I hope I’m low enough on the ground,” he said of the gunfire, which ultimately killed the driver, police said.
“I saw people and they were taking pictures from the balcony,” he said of onlookers as he screamed from the ground for help. “People were just looking at me.”
He continued hollering after being unable to find his phone to call for help himself.
“I was screaming and finally someone came over to me and they said, ‘Listen, I know you’re hurt, but you’re alive. You’re alive,’” he said.
Eventually, he was carried through the carnage by first responders to an ambulance and taken to a hospital, where he underwent surgery.
“Even now to this point, I can’t believe what happened,” he said of surviving the attack.
President Joe Biden will travel to New Orleans on Monday with first lady Jill Biden. They plan to meet with officials on the ground and “grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack,” the White House said Friday.