Melissa and Jeff Long were asleep in their hotel room when the alarm went off.
It was a call to evacuate the Royal Sonesta on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. At first, the Evansville couple thought about staying put. It was New Year’s Eve, after all. Someone had probably yanked the fire alarm as a joke.
As soon as they got to the street, they realized it was anything but. Police swarmed as they encased the area in crime scene tape. A woman sat on a nearby luggage cart bandaged and bleeding, repeatedly screaming, “He hit people, he hit people.” Another person uttered something cryptic about Army fatigues…