Long Island native Matthew Tenedorio among 15 killed in New Orleans attack

A Long Island native has been identified as one of the 15 people killed in the pickup truck attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day.

Matthew Tenedorio, 25, was born at Winthrop Hospital in Mineola and lived in Huntington until he was about 10, when his family moved to the New Orleans area in 2003, his cousin Christina Bounds, said.

Bounds and her husband, Greg, created a GoFundMe page to ease the financial burdens on Tenedorio’s family.

An audiovisual technician for the Superdome in New Orleans, Tenedorio lived with his parents, Cathy and Lou Tenedorio, in Carriere, Mississippi, about an hour from New Orleans. Lou also worked at the Superdome, Bounds said.

Tenedorio traveled to New Orleans with two friends to celebrate the holiday after New Year’s Eve dinner with family at his brother’s house in Slidell, Louisiana. 

Lou and Cathy Tenedorio, who both work downtown, were concerned about crime in the city, Bounds said. 

“They begged him not to go,” she said.

Bounds said that her cousin, who was relatively tall, at 6-2, was a few paces ahead of his friends as they walked to one last bar on Bourbon Street when they saw a body fall.

The three headed toward the gunfire, possibly because they were “wanting to help people,” she said.

The two friends dodged and got low when officers ushered people in nearby businesses.

His friends made it inside, but Tenedorio did not, Bounds said.

“He never came home,” she said.

Tenedorio was one of 15 people killed and 30 injured after a man the FBI identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, The Associated Press reported.

The youngest of three boys, Tenedorio was a joyful person who enjoyed skateboarding and was an engaging uncle to his nieces and nephews, Bounds said.

“Out of all my cousins, he’s the sweetest,” he said. “That’s why it’s so hard for us to accept.”