‘Brother for life’: man injured in New Orleans attack witnessed friend’s death | New Orleans truck attack

Among those who were injured but survived the deadly New Year’s Day truck attack on New Orleans’ most famous street was a former Princeton University football player whose ex-teammate was murdered by the assailant.

Ryan Quigley, 26, was in New Orleans with Martin “Tiger” Bech – who grew up about a two-hour drive west of the city in Lafayette, Louisiana – to ring in 2025 after both had forged a friendship while playing for Princeton University’s college football team. They had joined other revelers on Bourbon Street when a former US army veteran inspired by the Islamic State (IS) terror group managed to drive a pickup truck into the crowd that had gathered on one of the world’s most festive thoroughfares.

Bech, 27, was one of 14 victims slain before police could fatally shoot the attacker, who had planted undetonated homemade bombs further up Bourbon Street. Quigley was among about 30 who were injured – he was treated at a hospital, was discharged, and has been navigating a physical recovery since his subsequent release from the hospital, according to a GoFundMe campaign established to support him as well as a statement from Princeton’s football team.

The victims on Bourbon Street were targeted after city officials either removed or failed to deploy three different types of barriers that it had and were designed to prevent intentional ramming attacks such as the one on Bourbon Street. At least six of the victims who survived the attack – and the father of a man who was killed – have sued New Orleans’ city government, alleging that it failed to protect New Year’s Day revelers.

Quigley and Bech’s story was one of the earliest to emerge in the wake of the attack.

Beside their having graduated from Princeton and winning a football championship together there, they were colleagues at a financial firm on Manhattan’s Wall Street.

Bech’s younger brother Jack is also well-known in his own right, having played the sport for high-level programs at Texas Christian and Louisiana State universities.

Nonetheless, neither Quigley nor his family have said much about him since his injuries and his witnessing Bech’s killing. In a note attached to the page for his GoFundMe, which had raised nearly $80,000 as of Saturday, the campaign organizer wrote: “Ryan is doing OK … and resting in the company of his family and friends.”

Yet his account on the social media platform X suggests he has been grieving his friend while finding inspiration to continue his recovery.

One of Quigley’s recent reposts showed Bech scoring a long touchdown against a Princeton opponent.

Quigley also reposted a photo showing him with former Ultimate Fighting Championship interim titleholder Dustin Poirier, the Bech brothers’ fellow Lafayette native. The photo depicts Quigley holding a walker with visible scrapes on his face as well as a large brace on his right leg.

“This guy is the real deal,” Poirier wrote above the photo. “Great meeting him today. Safe travels brother and heal up.”

Quigley, a former two-time most valuable player of Philadelphia’s Catholic high school football league, replied to Poirier: “Taking lessons from the best.”

Bech’s funeral was in Lafayette five days after the attack, and he attended in a wheelchair.

At a public meeting the day after the funeral, the city’s mayor – at a public meeting after the funeral – made Quigley an honorary Cajun, referring to the Louisiana French ethnicity that is synonymous with the Lafayette region.

“You’re one of our own,” mayor Monique Blanco Boulet said, according to Louisiana’s Acadiana Advocate newspaper.

There was no mention of the honor on Quigley’s X account that day. Instead, a day later, he reposted a particularly poignant tribute to Tiger from Jack Bech.

The younger Bech’s X account had published a screenshot of a text message reading: “FBI just called they said they have video surveillance of … girls that were talking with, tiger pushing the girl out of the way to save her life. He’s a true American hero. Chills.”

Above that screenshot, Jack Bech wrote: “My brother is a true hero. Can’t express the love I have for him.”

Quigley, in turn, reposted Jack Bech while adding: “True hero and brother for life.”