NEW ORLEANS –

Tourists walk past temporary barriers on Orleans and Bourbon Street, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 in New Orleans.  (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

“Actually, we have them,” she said of the barriers. “I didn’t know about them, but we have them, and so we have been able now to put them out.”

The CEO of Meridian Rapid Defense Group confirmed to Fox News that his company sold 48 Archer barriers to New Orleans in 2017 — the same barriers the city installed on sidewalks around the French Quarter before reopening Bourbon Street on Thursday after federal officials concluded their crime scene evaluation.

Pedestrians walk down Bourbon Street as it is reopened in New Orleans, Louisiana on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2024. Multiple people are dead and dozens are injured after a man rammed his car into crowds of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street on Wednesday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

Peter Whitford said the 700-pound, L-shaped steel barriers are “the strongest mobile barriers in the world,” designed to stop a 5,500-pound truck going 60 MPH. 

“Not only did they not know they had them, they didn’t even know how to describe them,” Whitford said of New Orleans officials describing the barriers. “Even now, in the pictures I’ve seen, the barriers aren’t even set up properly because the wheels are still down.” 

The defense company has been trying to get in touch with city officials to explain how to set up the barriers, which remain improperly installed.