Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has spoken out about it the postponement of the Sugar Bowl game after a deadly attack Wednesday in New Orleans.
Murrill told NBC News she believes the game should be postponed to Friday. The game is over pushed back only one day so far until Thursday afternoon.
“Not my decision, but I would like to see it postponed another day. If they asked my opinion, I would tell them,” Murrill said. ‘I think it was wise to postpone it for at least a day. This is an active crime scene, and they just finished removing a bunch of bodies, and they still haven’t removed them all. I still think we should wait. an extra day.”
Murrill added that she believes the community is “safe” no matter what. The number of victims in the Bourbon Street attack has risen to fifteen, Fox News has learned.
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A general aerial view of the exterior of Caesars Superdome, Sunday, December 15, 2024, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman)
The game will currently be played less than 24 hours later than its original start time, despite the attack. The Allstate Sugar bowl The organization announced that the match will start at 3:00 PM local time (4:00 PM ET) on Thursday. The match was initially scheduled to start at 8:45 PM ET on Wednesday night, and previous reports indicated the match would be delayed 24 hours.
The Superdome is just a mile from the site of Wednesday morning’s deadly attack. Georgia and Notre Dame arrived in New Orleans on Sunday and reportedly stayed in hotels just steps away from the crime scene. According to reports, both schools implemented a “shelter in place” order for their teams.
According to an FBI statement, a man driving a Ford pickup truck drove into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. local time. The suspect, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, exchanged gunfire with local police before being pronounced dead at the scene.
The FBI is currently working to determine “the subject’s potential associations and ties with terrorist organizations” after an ISIS flag was found in the truck. Weapons and a possible IED were located in the suspect’s vehicle, and other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter.
Alethea Duncan of the New Orleans FBI noted during a news conference Wednesday that the FBI does not believe Din Jabbar was “singlely responsible” for the act.
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The decision to postpone the match just one day after the attack sparked mixed reactions from fans and pundits on social media.
Conservative commentator John Ziegler also expressed disagreement with the delay in a post on X.
“This is wrong. Postponing the Sugar Bowl one day will do nothing to bring back those who lost their lives, or make the game safer. In fact, it gives the terrorists exactly what they wanted. We are SO soft as a society in almost every respect,” Ziegler wrote.
“The ‘you can never be too safe’ people seem to be pretending that there are no housing costs for postponing an event of the magnitude of the Sugar Bowl. Tens of thousands of people have traveled to New Orleans without a hotel for tomorrow night, or flight reservations for Friday.”
Meanwhile, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy disagreed with those who criticized the game’s postponement, insinuating that those people are “idiots.”
“Okay, so it’s postponed. And the people who say if you move it 24 hours the terrorist can win are idiots. It’s (one) day. Secure the area. Do what you gotta do. A game 24 hours delaying doesn’t mean they win,” Portnoy wrote on X.
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Police and ambulance vehicles respond to a mass casualty incident reported on January 1, 2025 on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. (WVUE)
Allstate Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley released a statement sending his thoughts and prayers to all the victims of the attack, while thanking those who adjusted to the new start time.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families as we work through this,” said Jeff Hundley, CEO of the Allstate Sugar Bowl. “We have full confidence in the Governor and Mayor and all the federal, state and local first responders they deployed to this horrific event. Anytime we have an event like the Sugar Bowl, public safety is of the utmost importance. , and all parties involved agree that this can only be achieved with delay. Now we move on to the details of making the Sugar Bowl the premier, fun and safe event it has been for more than 90 years. “
“On behalf of the College Football Playoff, we are devastated by this morning’s attack, and our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those affected by this tragedy,” said Rich Clark, the executive director of the College Football Playoff. “We are grateful to the leadership of the Sugar Bowl, New Orleans, the State of Louisiana and federal authorities as we work together to ensure we provide a safe environment for everyone. We also appreciate ESPN’s flexibility to move the game to tomorrow afternoon.”
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