Heroic final act of college football player Tiger Bech before he was killed in New Orleans terror attack

By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-10 15:06:45 | Updated at 2025-01-10 18:24:44 3 hours ago
Truth

By JAKE NISSE and ALEX RASKIN and ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: 14:15 GMT, 10 January 2025 | Updated: 15:00 GMT, 10 January 2025

New details have emerged surrounding the last moments of former college football player Tiger Bech, who died in the New Orleans terror attack on January 1.

Bech, who was a wide receiver and punt returner for Princeton, was among the 14 people killed on Bourbon Street after a terrorist rammed his truck into a crowd.

And Bech's family have since learned that he died while saving the life of a nearby woman.

Bech's brother, Jack, shared a text message screenshot to X, which said that surveillance footage obtained by the FBI showed Bech pushing a woman out of the way of the truck to save her life.

Jack captioned the image: 'My brother is a true hero. Can’t express the love I have for him. He’s an Angel.'

The 27-year-old Bech died Wednesday morning at a New Orleans hospital, according to local media outlets citing Kim Broussard, the athletic director at St. Thomas More Catholic High. 

Bech attended St. Thomas More Catholic High in Louisiana and starred on the football team

Bech earned All-Ivy honors as a punt returner at Princeton University

Bech attended the high school, where he played wide receiver, quarterback, punt returner and defensive back, NoLa.com reported.

He graduated from Princeton in 2021, and was most recently he was working as an investment trader at a New York brokerage firm.

Bech had been working at Seaport Global, where company spokesperson Lisa Lieberman could not confirm his death. She told the AP, 'He was extremely well regarded by everybody who knew him.'

Bech's younger brother, Jack, is a top wide receiver at Texas Christian University.

Also among the victims in the tragic terror attack was a 25-year-old Superdome staffer.

Matthew Tenedorio, 25, was working as an audiovisual technician at the Saints' home stadium.

Darren Rizzi, who finished the season serving as the Saints' interim coach, was also left panicked about the whereabouts of his own son, after seeing he wasn't home on New Year's Day. He later checked his location to see that he was sleeping at a friend's house.

The driver of the truck, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was fatally shot in a firefight with police after steering his speeding truck around a barricade and slamming into the crowd. About 30 people were injured.

The FBI recovered a black IS flag from Jabbar's rented pickup and reviewed five videos posted to Facebook, including one in which he said he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned news headlines would not focus on the 'war between the believers and the disbelievers,' Raia said.

Jabbar also stated he joined IS before last summer and provided a last will and testament, the FBI said.

Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

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