Miami – At least three of the victims killed in the New Year’s Eve celebration terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter were Black and two others were from Fort Myers, Florida.

According to published reports, Baton Rouge resident Reggie Hunter, a 37- year-old father of two, Terrence Kennedy, 63, and 18 year-old Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, were among the 14 killed when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a rental truck into a crowd of people.

Kennedy and Dedeaux, both from New Orleans, were killed in the attack in which 35 others were injured. President Joe Biden called it an act of terrorism.

Also among the victims were two 20year-old women from Fort Myers who graduated from Canterbury School, a college prep school.

Their race or other information wasn’t made available by press time.

Dedeaux, who recently graduated from high school, went to the New Year’s Eve celebration despite her mother’s concern for her safety.

She snuck out of the house along with a cousin and friend to attend the festivities.

Her mother, Melissa Dedeaux, 40, is planning her daughter’s funeral to start off the New Year.

"When your parents say don’t go anywhere please listen to them," she wrote on social media following the tragedy. "I lost my baby. Just pray for me and my family pleaseeeeeee!!! God I need you now!!!"

Hunter had just completed his shift at work and wanted to celebrate with his cousin, Shirell Robinson Jackson, who was not injured in the attack. Jackson described Hunter in a Facebook post as happy and a "great father" to his kids.

“Just wanted to go out and hang with our cuz. Not a threat to anyone … he surely didn’t deserve this, none of the victims did," she wrote.

According to reports, Kennedy’s family said he was missing after he didn’t show up for dinner on New Year’s Day.

He told his relatives he was planning to have a drink on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Eve and the family hadn’t heard from him since.

The police got in contact with one of his cousins to ask her to identify Kennedy at the coroner’s office.

His family learned then he was among the victims killed in the attack.

Jabbar, a 42 year old Texas resident who reports say was an ISIS-inspired terrorist, also shot two New Orleans police officers before officers opened fire and killed the gunman.

The two officers were taken to the hospital for treatment and were expected to survive.

The shootings occurred on Bourbon Street, a nightlife hub for thousands of partygoers, which included a Mardi Gras parade celebration for the AllState Sugar Bowl playoff game between Notre Dame and Georgia at the Caesars Superdome.

After the attack, the game was postponed to Jan. 2 with heightened police presence and other law enforcement officials monitoring any suspicious activities at or near the Superdome.

The White House released a statement in which Biden said the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are leading the investigation into the incident.

"I am grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing even greater death and injury," Biden said. "I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind."

Biden added: "I will continue to receive updates throughout the day, and I will have more to say as we have further information to share. In the meantime, my heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities."

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell told reporters, "The driver’s mission was to kill as many people as possible." Jabbar “was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. It was not a DUI situation."

Cantrell said over 300 officers were deployed for the big New Year’s Eve celebration and acted rapidly to prevent the driver from killing and harming more people.

Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy told CNN that the Super Bowl in February at the Superdome will also be under tight security in light of the New Year’s Eve tragedy.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she believes more people were part of the terror attack and they will be brought to justice despite the White House ruling that Jabbar acted alone. "Many of us woke up this morning to devastating news of the brutal intentional slaughter of innocent people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans," Murrill said on social media. "I’m praying for the victims and their families and will ensure they get justice for this appalling act."

A search of Jabbar’s home and house he rented through Airbnb yielded bomb-making materials, according to the FBI.

The agency said Jabbar was an Army veteran and later landed a $125,000 a year job as a cloud consulting manager before he became an ISIS-inspired terrorist.

He has three children from two marriages that ended in a divorce, and one of his wives took out a restraining order against him, claiming he was abusive and threatened her.

President-elect Donald Trump said on his social media platform the attack was "pure evil."

"When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true," Trump said.

"The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!"

The University of Georgia and Notre Dame also expressed condolences to the victims’ families and solidarity with the city of New Orleans.

“We are horrified and saddened by the senseless act of violence that occurred in the early hours of New Year’s Day in New Orleans,” the University of Georgia said in a post on X. "We offer our deepest condolences to all the victims and their families, and we stand in solidarity with the New Orleans community.”

New Orleans is home to one of the largest Black populations in the U.S. with 59.01 African-American residents living in the Cajun city, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

The rest of the population is 33.9 percent white, 2.9 percent Asian and 1.9 percent other races.

The tragedy in New Orleans comes as the city is approaching the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm that caused massive flooding in 80 percent of the city in August 2005.

According to meteorologists, New Orleans experienced the worst storm surge in U.S. history when Katrina made landfall, as most areas were under 15 feet of water and resulted in over 1,800 deaths.

The storm caused over $160 billion in damages to the city’s infrastructure, businesses and homes.