A Mississippi mother is grieving her teen daughter who was killed in the devastating terrorist truck ramming attack in New Orleans.
Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, had recently graduated high school and had snuck away to ring in the New Year on Bourbon Street with her cousin and their friend Zion Parsons, also 18.
“I didn’t even know she came over here,” her anguished mother Melissa told NOLA.com.
Dedeaux suffered gruesome injuries after running out in the street into the path of the vehicle in a panic once gunshots rang out.
“I just want to see my baby,” Melissa, 40, said as she wept.
Dedeaux was pursuing a nursing program at Blue Cliff College — in Metairie, about 6 miles from the scene of the attack — and was described as “a little ball of sunshine.”
Police have not confirmed Dedeaux’s death but Melissa says she knows she is gone because her niece said they laid a blanket over her.
Another student from the University of Georgia was “critically injured” during the New Orleans terrorist truck ramming attack, university president Jere W. Morehead said in a statement.
“At this point, we have learned that a University of Georgia student was critically injured in the attack and is receiving medical treatment. I have spoken to the student’s family and shared my concern, support and well wishes on behalf of the entire UGA community,” Morehead said.
Morehead added that the university would do “everything in our power” to support victims from its community who’ve been impacted by the attack.
The student’s identity was not released.
