Kareem Badawi was a young man living his dreams as a freshman at the University of Alabama.

But his life was tragically cut short by the New Year’s Day terrorist attack that killed the 18-year-old and 14 others, including the perpetrator.

“It’s evil,” said his father Belal Badawi. “Nobody can justify killing innocent people. What’s in your mind just to kill people? They were just celebrating the new year. I can’t believe how evil people are.”

Kareem Badawi was one of two people with Alabama ties killed in the attack. Drew Dauphin, an Auburn University graduate from Montgomery, was also killed.

Kareem had just finished his first semester at UA where he was a member of Sigma Chi.

He grew up in Baton Rouge and was in New Orleans to reunite with friends from high school. They planned to celebrate the holiday together at the Sugar Bowl.

Belal Badawi told AL.com that his son and friend Parker Vidrine decided about 2:45 a.m. to go back out into the French quarter as there were still a lot of revelers out on the streets.

Roughly 30 minutes later, police say, former Army soldier Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who posted videos on his Facebook hours before the attack previewing the violence he would unleash and proclaiming his support for the Islamic State militant group, carried out the attack.

Fourteen people were killed and dozens injured, including Kareem’s friend Vidrine who was hospitalized with critical injuries.

Belal Badawi said he learned of the attack when he woke up about 6 a.m. and looked at his phone.

“I said, ‘Oh my God,’ there’s something going on in New Orleans,’ so I went to searching,” he told AL.com. “Then it came over the TV.”

Belal Badawi said he immediately tried to reach his son.

“I kept calling him and he didn’t answer,” he said. “I called his brother, who was down there too, but they weren’t together.”

Belal Badawi’s other son returned his call about 7 a.m. and said he, too, had been trying to call Kareem.

Belal Badawi said they began to worry even more when they found out that Kareem’s phone was located in the area where the attack happened.

About 9 a.m., Vidrine’s mother called the Badawi family and told them her son was in critical condition.

“That was when we left for New Orleans,” Belal Badawi said. “We needed to be close.”

The family went to the hospital to await news of Kareem.

“We waited like four hours,” Belal said, “and they came to us with the news.”

Kareem’s high school held a large prayer service Thursday night, and Kareem’s funeral was held Friday.

“Kareem was a good kid, a sweet kid, a smart kid,’’ his father said. “He like people.”

Kareem grew up playing sports, basketball, baseball and football.

The teen planned on becoming a mechanical engineer, so he kept that in mind when he began to look at colleges.

Both his brother and sister attend LSU.

“He found out Alabama was good, so he asked me,” his father recalled.

“He loved life, and he said, ‘Dad, I need to see something different.’”

His first semester didn’t disappoint.

“He was so in love with Alabama,” Belal Badawi said. “He kept texting me and telling me he was so glad about his decision. He said, ‘My dream came true.’”

“Kareem was just a lovely boy and just loved people,” his father said. “We’ll miss him forever.”