Former Chestnut Hill Lacrosse Captain Among Victims in New Orleans Attack

A former Chestnut Hill men’s lacrosse player was among the 14 people killed in the New Year’s truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

Billy DiMaio, 25, was celebrating the holiday with friends when an Islamic State sympathizer broke through a police barricade and rammed a rented Ford pickup into the group of revelers at about 3:15 a.m.

Fourteen people were killed and dozens more injured in what the FBI has declared an act of terrorism. The driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was fatally shot in a firefight with New Orleans police.

DiMaio played 52 games in five seasons as a short-stick defensive midfielder at Chestnut Hill. He was the captain of the 2022 team that captured the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference championship, scoring a hat trick in the last game of his college career.

DiMaio grew up in East Islip, N.Y., and moved with his family to Holmdel, N.J., where he played high school lacrosse. He graduated from Chestnut Hill with a business degree and became an account executive with Audacy, Inc.

“Billy was a leader within our community who shined not only as a star student in the classroom but also as a top athlete,” the college said in a statement. “Our prayers are with the entire DiMaio family at this tragic hour, as our entire college reflects upon the positive impact he had upon so many in our close community.”

“He was a good, humble kid,” DiMaio’s father, Bill, told the New Orleans Advocate. “He loved life.”

DiMaio’s mother, Tracie, described her son, the oldest of three children, as “a pure, gentle-hearted soul.”

“He will be truly missed,” she said.

Jabbar, 42, was an American citizen from Texas and an Army veteran.