VEHICLE PLOWS INTO MARDI GRAS PARADE CROWD

Twenty-eight people are injured after a motorist drives into a crowd during one of the most popular parades of Mardi Gras in New Orleans on Saturday night. A man is arrested and is being investigated for driving while intoxicated in the accident.

new orleans» A suspect is in custody after 28 people were injured Saturday when a vehicle plowed into a crowd watching the Krewe of Endymion parade in the Mid-City section of New Orleans, police said.

Police Chief Michael Harrison said the suspect is being investigated for driving while intoxicated. Harrison was asked twice by the media if terrorism was suspected. While he didn’t say “No,” he did say it looks like a case of DWI.

“We suspect that that subject was highly intoxicated,” he said.

Twenty-one people were hospitalized after the crash with five victims in guarded condition.

The victims range in age from as young as 3 or 4 to adults in their 30s and 40s.

Among the injured was one New Orleans police officer. Harrison said the officer, who was on duty, was in “good spirits.”

Twenty-year-old Kourtney McKinnis told the Advocate that the driver of the truck seemed almost unaware of what he had just done.

“He was just kind of out of it,” she said.