Day of mourning declared for Alabama victims of New Orleans terrorist attack
Gov. Kay Ivey called on Alabama to join Louisiana in a day of mourning Monday for victims of the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, including two victims who called Alabama home.
Kareem Badawi was a Baton Rouge native who was a freshman at the University of Alabama. Drew Dauphin was an auto engineer who graduated from Auburn University in 2023.
Ivey issued a proclamation directing that flags remain lowered as a visible sign of respect and remembrance for Badawi, Dauphin, and all the victims of the attack, which killed 14 people and also ended in the death of the perpetrator. (Flags are also lowered in Alabama to honor President Jimmy Carter.)
Badawi, 18, was a 2024 graduate of the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge and had started this fall at UA, where he pledged to join the Sigma Chi fraternity.
Read more: ‘It’s evil’: Father of UA freshman killed in New Orleans attack says ‘we’ll miss him forever’
Dauphin as a supplier process engineer who had worked for American Honda Motor Company Inc. since his graduation from Auburn. Dauphin graduated from Alabama Christian Academy in Montgomery in 2016.
A group of friends visiting New Orleans from Mobile were among the 30 or so injured in the attack.
Alexis Scott-Windham, 23, told AL.com she was shot in the ankle and her friend, Brandon Whitsett, was struck by the pickup truck.
Scott-Windam said she has to go back to the hospital in two weeks to have her fracture re-examined. In the meantime, she’s on bed rest and off work from her job at the Amazon facility in Mobile.
Whitsett, she said, remains in New Orleans and is in stable condition at Touro Hospital. H
Whitsett, a 2022 alumni of Vigor, posted on Facebook Wednesday saying, “Forever thank god that could of been worse.”
Scott-Windham will receive full pay from her employer, Amazon, while she recovers.
A story by NOLA.com on Thursday quoted Scott-Windham saying she was denied a “leave of absence” to recover. She also expressed fear of retaliation that will require her to find a new job.
Amazon learned Friday that Scott-Windham had mistakenly requested the wrong type of leave.