‘I’m alive’: man who uses wheelchair tells of New Orleans attack ordeal

Jeremi Sensky, in the hospital bed, and his family confer with CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans. Photograph: Via GoFundMe

The family of a man who was left paralyzed from the waist down by a 1999 car accident before being hit and badly wounded in the deadly New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans are reportedly wondering whether the 300lb wheelchair he uses may have had a role in helping halt the terror.

Jeremi Sensky of the suburban Pittsburgh community of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, was in New Orleans to ring in 2025 with relatives at the time the attack occurred, he told KDKA’s The Marty Griffin Show. Sensky was on Bourbon Street when he was hit by a US army veteran inspired by Islamic State in an intentional ramming that killed 14 people and wounded about 30 others.