Lafayette man dies in Barcelona attack
Couple was on honeymoon abroad when van rammed crowd; police suspect at least 9 in plot
BARCELONA, SPAIN >> A cell of at least nine extremists meticulously plotted to combine vehicles and explosives in a direct hit on tourists, and managed to carry off most of their deadly plan, killing 14 people, including a man from Lafayette on his honeymoon, authorities said Friday. Police in Spain and France pressed a manhunt for any remaining members of the group, which Islamic State claimed as its own.
Jared Tucker, 40, and his wife, Heidi Nunes-Tucker, 42, of Lafayette, were celebrating their honeymoon in Barcelona after saving up for the trip. They married a year ago.
Outside his home in Walnut Creek, Tucker’s father, Dan Tucker, showed pictures of his son enjoying the sights of Europe.
“The last week has probably been some of the happiest times of his life. He’s been through some
tough stuff, and it’s just neat to see him after eight years of being divorced that he’s now found . ... They’re just really great together,” he told the AP, choking up. “That’s him just having a ball.”
“That’s the only consoling part — that he probably died happy,” Dan Tucker said.
The couple spent about four days in Paris and planned to spend four days in Barcelona on what was their first international trip, he said.
Nunes-Tucker told NBC News that the couple were having drinks at a patio when her husband said he was going to the bathroom.
“Next thing I know, there’s screaming, yelling,” she said. “I got pushed inside the souvenir kiosk and stayed there hiding while everybody kept running by screaming.”
Jared Tucker worked with his father at a familyowned pool business in the Bay Area since he was 16, Dan Tucker said.
Betty Needham, who works at one of the companies Daniel Tucker owns, said she’s known the younger Tucker for a few years.
“It’s a big loss here for us,” she said. “He’s leaving a big hole here. He was a great guy. Once you meet him, you’d never forget him. He’s always got a smile on his face. He’s got a big smile and a big heart.”
The State Department confirmed earlier Friday that at least one American was killed and one injured in the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, Spain.
Only flawed bomb construction avoided a more devastating attack, authorities said after taking a closer look at a blast Wednesday evening in the town of Alcanar that was first written off as a household gas explosion. At least one person was killed and several injured in the home where police said the deadly plan took shape.
Eighteen hours later, a rented van veered into Barcelona’s crowded Las Ramblas promenade, swerving along the walkway Thursday and killing 13 people. A surveillance video from inside a museum, which captured images of the van, showed it speeding down the promenade, barely missing a person with a stroller while others scattered.
Armed with an ax, knives and false explosives belts, attackers then drove a second vehicle to the boardwalk in the resort town of Cambrils early Friday, fatally injuring one person. Five of those attackers were shot to death, among them 17-year-old Moussa Oukabir, according to a Spanish police union official, confirming Spanish news reports.
Oukabir’s name was first on a document listing four suspects sought in the attacks, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. The Barcelona-based La Vanguardia newspaper, Spanish national broadcaster RTVE and other outlets cited police sources as saying he was the driver of the van in Barcelona.
The arrest order was issued throughout Spain and into France, according to the Spanish official and a French police official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the document. They did not say what became of the other three men listed, who ranged in age from 18 to 24. All had roots in Morocco; only Moussa Oukabir was born in Spain, according to the document.
Also Friday, Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont said at least one “terrorist is still on out there. We do not have information regarding the capacity to do more harm.”
The French official said Spain had flagged a rented van that was believed to have crossed the border to the north.
Moussa’s brother Driss Oukabir was arrested Thursday after he went to police to report his stolen identity documents were those found in the van abandoned on the historic Las Ramblas promenade, Spanish media reported.
The brothers were born and raised in Ripoll, a quiet, upscale town of 10,000 tucked into the hilly Catalan heartland and dominated by the imposing tower of the Monesteri de Santa Maria. The dented door to the family’s firstfloor apartment swung open Friday; the home was
empty.
Neighbors said they were shocked by the news of Moussa Oukabir’s involvement. One teenager, who identified himself only by his first name, Pau, said they played together when they were younger and he was “a good boy.”
Authorities said the two attacks were related and the work of a large terrorist cell that had been plotting for a long time from the house in Alcanar, 124 miles down the coast from Barcelona. The house was destroyed by a butane gas explosion Wednesday night that killed one person. One of those injured in the blast was taken into custody.
Senior police official Josep Lluis Trapero said police believe the apparently accidental explosion prevented the suspects from carrying out a far deadlier attack.
Police said they arrested two people Friday, after the two arrests a day earlier. In custody are three Moroccans and one Spaniard, none with terrorism-related records.
“We are not talking about a group of one or two people, but rather a numerous group,” regional Interior Ministry chief Joaquim Forn told Onda Cero radio.
Amid heavy security, Barcelona tried to move forward Friday, with the Las Ramblas promenade quietly reopening to the public and King Felipe VI and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy joining thousands in a minute of silence in the city’s main square.
“I am not afraid! I am not afraid!” the crowd chanted in Catalan and Spanish.