His parents said their son had ‘the biggest heart.’ He’s one of the victims of the Bourbon Street attack
They’d come from Gulfport, Mississippi, to celebrate the new year.
Her mother didn’t want her to go.
“When your parents say don’t go anywhere please listen to them … this was an act of terrorism and now my baby is gone y’all,” her mother Melissa Dedeaux wrote on Facebook. “My baby is gone she is no longer with us.”
“No matter how good you are, how sweet you are, you can be the one that’s buried. Things like this can happen,” Melissa Dedeaux told NOLA.com.
She told NOLA.com her daughter graduated from Harrison Central High School in Gulfport last year, and planned to start a nursing program on January 13.
Melissa Dedeaux said her daughter was “the sweetest person” and was very popular.
Parsons said he met Nikyra Dedeaux at a pool party about a year ago and they had become close friends over the last few months.
“We started hanging out a few months ago, and I just, I knew, I saw why people wanted to be around her. She was just so amazing,” Parsons said.
“Nikyra was just the most amazing person. Everybody loved her. She was just so bubbly, so eccentric, just a light to be around,” he said.
Tiger Bech
Tiger Bech, a native of Lafayette, Louisiana, was a former Princeton University football player and had been working as a junior trader for capital markets firm Seaport Global Holdings in New York City after graduating in 2021.
Bech was “a ferocious competitor with endless energy, a beloved teammate and a caring friend,” Princeton’s football coach Bob Surace said in a statement on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old had traveled to his home state for the holidays and was planning to fly back to New York on Wednesday morning, according to his older sister Virginia Bech.
Instead, he was caught up in the deadly attack while on his way back to a hotel with his best friend Ryan Quigley, she said.
Bech died from internal injuries including head trauma hours after the attack, his sister said.
“Happy new year” was the last text message he sent to a family group chat, at 1:30 a.m.
“Evil will not prevail,” Virginia Bech told CNN, describing herself as “heartbroken.”
Quigley, Tiger Bech’s friend, is in a stable condition with severe cuts to the head and a broken leg, the sister said, citing doctors.
Reggie Hunter
Hunter, 37, was a father of two known for his sense of humor, according to his cousin Shirell Robinson Jackson.
Hunter leaves behind his 11-year-old and a 1-year-old, Jackson said.
“He loved his kids. He loved loved loved his family,” Jackson tells CNN.
Hunter loved to laugh and tell jokes, as Jackson described multiple inside jokes the two had. Jackson said she and Hunter talked about going to the gym in the new year together and going to one another’s churches in the new year.
Hunter was a manager at a local warehouse company for several years.
“Reggie was a beautiful person inside and out,” his cousin Travis Hunter told CNN. “To know Reggie was to love Reggie. He was always in a good mood.”
He added Reggie was a great father and a “good, pure-hearted person.”