NEW ORLEANS — Tiger Bech, the brother of a current Texas Christian University football player, was among the 15 people killed when a driver rammed a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans’ French Quarter on Wednesday.
Jack Bech, Tiger’s brother, is a wide receiver at TCU, which is located in Fort Worth. Tiger, who was 27, played football at Princeton University before graduating in 2021. He was a school kick returner and receiver from 2017 to 2019 and earned All-Ivy League honors as a returner. He died late Wednesday morning at a New Orleans hospital.
Princeton football coach Bob Surace said Wednesday that he had been texting with Bech’s father, sharing memories of the player.
“He might be the first Tiger to ever play for us, and that nickname kind of described him as a competitor,” Surace told ESPN. The school’s mascot is the Tiger. “He was somebody that somehow, like in the key moments, just excelled and was full of energy, full of life.”
Tiger was most recently working as an investment trader at a New York brokerage firm, according to the Associated Press.
On Wednesday, Jack responded to a KLFY report about Tiger’s death in a post on X, expressing how his brother inspired him.
The brothers are from Lafayette, La. and both graduated from St. Thomas More High School.
The FBI is investigating the attack as a terrorist act. Guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device were found in the vehicle, which bore the flag of the Islamic State group.
The driver was identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas and an Army veteran.