In a war. On Bourbon Street. A veteran details the chaos, death he saw in New Orleans

A cheerful night in New Orleans quickly became a nightmare for an Iowa couple after a truck plowed through a crowd of people, killing 14 and wounding dozens of others in what the FBI is calling an act of terrorism.

Jim Mowrer and his wife, Nicole, flew from Iowa to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve to visit family. They had been enjoying the sights and sounds of the celebrations in the French Quarter moments before tragedy struck.

“It was a very pleasant evening and everyone was in a good mood,” Mowrer recalled of the moments before the attack.

Mowrer and his wife were walking back to his hotel on a crowded Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. when they heard tires squealing, banging and the gunning of a truck engine nearby.

The couple began to hear screams nearby as the truck accelerated.

“We heard that kind of commotion and heard the truck accelerating and saw it coming at us,” Mowrer told the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Thursday. “We saw the truck hit people along the way and so her and I jumped, ran out of the street onto the sidewalk and into a small doorway.”

The couple saw the truck accelerate through the crowd just feet from them as people screamed and rushed to safety.

The scene was nothing short of horrifying, Mowrer said.

Mowrer said he knew almost immediately that it was a targeted attack and not a vehicle malfunction, considering there had been a similar attack in Germany at a Christmas market that killed five and injured more than 200 less than two weeks ago.

“It was still accelerating, I think it probably got up about 80 (mph), but it was maybe going 60 or 70 when it came past us,” Mowrer said. “We saw that and then gunfire began.”

Mowrer had his wife lay low on the ground as the sound of gunfire — which he later learned was police shooting and killing the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar — rang out through the streets.

After the shooting subsided about a minute later, the couple saw people lying on the streets and decided to help. Mowrer, an Iraq veteran, former Pentagon aide and candidate for U.S. Congress and Iowa Secretary of State, took off his belt to apply a tourniquet to anyone who was bleeding out.

Revelry to terror: How the deadly New Orleans truck attack unfolded

The couple checked on a nearby person but it was “very clear” they had died from their injuries.

They went on to check on five other people — but all were lifeless bodies.

“We’re very disappointed we couldn’t help them,” Mowrer said. “Unfortunately, all of them were very clearly deceased by the state of their bodies and I don’t need to go into graphic detail. But it was very clear that they were dead and there was nothing we could do for them.”

Mowrer and his wife headed back to their hotel as first responders started to arrive at the scene. He said they didn’t want to get in the way and didn’t know whether there would be a second attack.

“I wasn’t sure if the driver had been captured or killed and I didn’t know if there would be a second attack on first responders,” he said. “I basically drug my wife down as fast as I could a few blocks to our hotel.”

Mowrer told people who were still celebrating out on the streets that there had been an attack nearby and they should go seek shelter.

Mowrer opened his phone to see if there was any information on the attack. When he saw none, he decided to post on X, a social media platform, at 3:45 a.m. His post went viral and he's since shared his experience with CBS News and NPR.

“Was on bourbon street in New Orleans went my wife tonight about 20 minutes ago. SUV came down speeding and running people over,” the post read. “Mass casualty event, tried to first aid but most were dead. Estimate double digit deaths.”

The couple has been slowly processing the aftermath of the attack just less than 48 hours later, he said. Mowrer said his wife was as calm and collected as one could be in a situation as intense as a mass casualty attack.

“For me it felt like all of a sudden I was back in combat, which is unfortunate, because when you’re in a war you kind of expect that, but when you’re out on New Year's Eve with your wife and enjoying all these happy festivities in a nice peaceful place — it’s just unfortunate in a split second it can change,” Mowrer said.

José Mendiola is a breaking news reporter for the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him on X @mendiola_news.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Miltary veteran and Bourbon St witness describes New Orleans attack