Dr. Sunita Saini started planning in October for her family’s New Year’s Eve adventure. It has become a tradition for the Turlock family to travel somewhere fun to ring in the new year.
“We have always done exciting New Year’s Eve trips…We love big crowds, we love the big show and flair,” said Saini, recalling a trip to Disney World in Florida where they rung in the new year with 8,000 other Mickey Mouse fans.
This year, she chose New Orleans.
“As a helicopter mom I literally spent months asking locals, going on blogs, and joining NOLA travel online groups, mapping out which locations are the safest, which parks to avoid, what streets to not be on. I asked five separate police officers, three Uber drivers, and four restaurant workers where to be and not be for NYE to keep my kids the safest. I had the ‘Safest New Orleans for families’ trip planned. And when I arrived to the NYE festivities, I was relieved that everybody I had asked was correct because I saw babies in strollers and toddlers and families exactly where we were for the fleur de lis drop and fireworks. After we screamed ‘Happy New Year!’ the kids surrounded me with hugs and kisses and thanked me for the trip and we said gratitude prayers in the middle of Jackson Square. It was the most wonderful mother moment I could have asked for,” she said.
“But none of this planning mattered.”
Around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday, Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a truck through a crowd of New Year’s Day revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring at least 30. Jabbar, 42, was fatally shot in a firefight with police at the scene of the deadly crash on Bourbon Street. Authorities also found crude bombs that had been planted in the neighborhood in an apparent attempt to cause more carnage. Two improvised explosive devices left in coolers several blocks apart were rendered safe at the scene, officials said. Other devices were determined to be nonfunctional.
Saini and her children, ages 17, 19 and 21, were on Bourbon Street at 1:30 a.m. — less than two hours before the attack. Saini has pictures of her family standing next to where police found the explosive devices that didn’t go off as planned.
“Based on the number of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) found and in the location they were in throughout Jackson Square and the French Quarter, had those gone off at the right time — at the stroke of midnight…all of us would have been dead. Or worse, my kids dying and me surviving, which I have seen in my 25 years of being a pediatrician and my worst nightmare. Which is why parents of those who have survived childhood death are my absolute heroes that I worship every day for their strength and perseverance,” she said.
Unaware of the tragedy unfolding in the French Quarter, Saini — safely in her vacation rental home at this time —looked over the photos she had taken on NYE with her family and posted them on social media at 3:20 a.m. It wasn’t long until a Turlock friend reached out asking if she and her family were safe. By the end of the day, Saini received 247 messages and calls from friends and loved ones checking on her safety.
Saini credits “God’s infinite power and knowledge and wisdom” for keeping her family safe — for making sure they left the French Quarter before 3 a.m. and for changing their hotel accommodations (they originally were booked to stay at the Hyatt Centric in the French Quarter, which would have been in the middle of the gunfight with Jabbar and police).
“Of course things go through your mind, like why did we travel? Why didn’t we just stay home in Turlock where it is safe? But God also had an immediate answer for that: Apparently in my hometown on New Year’s Eve, a man came into the bank on one of our main downtown streets with a suitcase and told the bank there was a bomb in it, and that he would detonate it if he didn’t get all the money. So he robbed the bank with a possible device that could’ve, again, killed me and the kids had I gone into that bank at that time…and yes, I do have an actual account at that bank,” said Saini.
On Friday, she and her family went to the memorial on Bourbon Street for the victims and said some prayers.
“It was very eerie to retrace our steps,” said Saini.
Despite her family’s close call with tragedy that has left Saini emotionally distraught, she said she will “continue to live on and enjoy every moment I can with these children of mine.”
