Grieving New Orleans gathers in prayer and healing after New Year's Day attack

Hundreds of New Orleanians gathered at the City of Love Church on Saturday morning to seek solace and understanding in the wake of the New Year's Day attack.

NEW ORLEANS — Kim Alexander sat in the middle of the half-filled sanctuary as music and prayer filled the room. While Bishop Lester Love spoke of healing and hope at the pulpit, Alexander didn’t seem convinced the city will be safer after a car rampage killed 14 New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street.

“There’s too many unattended areas in the French Quarter, there’s too many unattended areas in the city,” the 60-year-old New Orleans resident told NBC News after the service. She said she thinks more officers should be hired.

She wasn’t alone in her worries. Hundreds of New Orleanians gathered at the City of Love Church on Saturday morning to seek solace and understanding in the wake of the attack. With hands raised and tears rolling down their faces, attendees sang, shouted and prayed — not just for the victims, but for the attacker, the city and a safer future.

The attacker, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas, drove a rented truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Authorities said he posted videos online during his journey to New Orleans in which he professed his support for ISIS. After plowing through the crowd, Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police.

The mood at the morning prayer service oscillated between grief and determination. Police officers stood alongside grieving members of the New Orleans community.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-orleans-attack-prayer-service-rcna186259

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