As the nation celebrated the promise of a New Year, a man armed with a 6,000-pound truck careened down crowded Bourbon Street in New Orleans, striking people and exchanging gunfire with police.
15 people were killed, including the suspect. And, dozens of others were injured, many critically.
Some 700 miles away in Charleston, Erin Foushee saw the news as she scrolled through her phone New Year’s Day, but she quickly looked away.
“I just feel like there’s been so much bad news in our world that I kind of set it aside for a minute, “says Foushee. “Like, I can’t look at that right now and I closed it.”
Foushee couldn’t ignore the news for long. She got a text from her father later that day. A loved one from Picayune Mississippi had been killed in the attack, police now call an act of terrorism.
"And I'm just kind of standing there thinking, like, am I reading that right?"
Foushee’ s cousin Cathy lost her youngest son, 25-year-old Matthew Tenedorio.

Immediately, Foushee called her cousin and learned the family had enjoyed dinner together in Slidell, Louisiana New Year’s Eve before Matthew decided to head to New Orleans with friends some 30 miles away.
She says his parents and older brothers expressed concern.
“Like, ‘oh, you don’t want to do that. It’s a big holiday, you know, like just avoid it,’” explains Foushee.
“And so, they were encouraging Matthew not to go.”
Before he left, Foushee says, Matthew promised to text his parents from New Orleans, but that text was never sent.
What happened next, comes from friends.
“They were on Bourbon Street, and they saw kind of a commotion and it looked like bodies were flying,” says Foushee.
The young men ran, not away from the commotion but toward it, to see if they could help.
“And then, when the gunshots started, people started dispersing into whatever open door they could find,” she says.
“And that was when Matthew's friend said he lost him. He didn't see him again.”
Friends found Matthew’s car where he’d parked it the night before. They knew something was wrong and called his mom.
Cathy Tenedorio and other family members reached out to local hospitals, but there was no sign of Matthew. So, they drove to a staging area in New Orleans where dozens of other anxious families awaited word on their loved ones.
“And she showed them a picture of Matthew and they said ‘yes, we have him.’”

Police escorted Matthew’s body to Slidell where he was laid to rest this weekend.
Foushee says an autopsy shows Matthew was shot in his left leg, near the femoral artery. But he died from blunt force trauma to the head.
How did that trauma happen? Did Matthew fall or was he struck? And, who shot him, the police or the suspect?
Then, there’s the question so many want answered. Why were steel bollards, meant to block Bourbon Street and protect pedestrians, not working New Year’s Eve?

Several of the victims’ families, including those who survived, filed a lawsuit last week claiming the city and two contractors failed to protect people.
Tenedorio’s family is not involved in the suit, but his mother sent South Carolina Public Radio pictures from Bourbon Street Friday that show a large truck blocking the road instead of barricades. Cathy Tenedorio also shared photos of a growing, makeshift memorial for victims, including her son.
“I don't know if they'll ever get the answers that they're hoping to have,” says Foushee. “But the answers also don't change anything, you know?
Matthew Tenedorio is gone.
Foushee says he’d recently gotten a job at the Superdome in New Orleans, which he loved, and had a laugh that could lighten any room.
Matthew is survived by a big family, including his parents and grandparents. Foushee says they’re finding strength in their deep faith.
She’s inspired by their grace, as she tries to assure her own children, and herself, they are safe.
“I cannot imagine burying a child. I mean, no mother, right? No mother can ever put themselves in that place,” says Foushee.
But it’s happened, yet again. A stranger has stolen lives in a violent mass attack, just hours into the new year.