Palm Desert Mayor’s daughter safe in Barcelona after terror attack
Erica Harnik, the adult daughter of Palm Desert Mayor Jan Harnik and attorney Brian Harnik, was near the popular Las Ramblas avenue in Barcelona when a van rammed through crowds, killing 13 people and injuring more than 100 people.
Harnik and her boyfriend, Osama Khan, were unharmed, but are now staying in the refuge of a nearby hotel.
Erika posted a message to her Facebook page, reading:
Osama Khan and I are safe. We were very nearby the attack in Barcelona on Las Ramblas but were in our hotel and safe. Our prayers are going out…we will be safe and alert! Love you all ♥️
Attorney Brian Harnik tells KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 that it took about an hour to reach his daughter.
He was unable to connect to her via her cell phone. “I did a check on the internet and found out the hotel was right near where this terrible tragedy had occurred,” Brian Harnik said. He reached Erica by calling the hotel.
Harnik says Erica and her boyfriend had just arrived in Barcelona Thursday morning. The trip was to celebrate his graduation from Harvard Law School and his passage of the California Bar Exam.
The pair had taken a stroll on Las Ramblas as they arrived, but were in the hotel at the time of the attack, Mr. Harnik said.
“There is this helplessness we feel,” Mayor Harnik said, “but she is safe at this moment and we know our two oldest daughters are going to Europe tomorrow, so it’s a lot of emotion.”
Another couple from the Coachella Valley is in Barcelona. Christine and Brett Stein of Palm Desert are on vacation with their young daughter.
Christine spoke with CBS Local 2 anchor Brooke Beare via text message from her Barcelona hotel room.
“I feel upset and devastated for the people that were killed and injured today. This was a tragic incident and in a wonderful city.
We have already been in Barcelona for two weeks and is our third visit to this city over the years and won’t be our last.
We are staying just a few blocks from Las Ramblas and were at the site of the incident just this morning shopping. We were back at our apartment when it happened and actually found out about it through a text from a friend back in the desert.
After that I looked outside to see a helicopter above and heard many sirens.
Since we are a few blocks away and many stories up, we felt at a safe distance from the direction of the sirens and immediately called family to let them know we are okay. While we were doing that, we could see our normally quiet neighborhood busy with people walking quickly and cars going in the opposite direction as police had already blocked off the main streets.
After a few hours and after they had been caught, the restaurants and shops around us were open as normal for dinner service. Tonight we obviously avoided the area where this took place.”
As the country mourns and police continue to search for answers, here’s what we know so far.
When and where did the attack happen?
At around 5:00 p.m. local time (11a.m. ET), reports of the incident first emerged on social media.
A white van with blue markings accelerated into scores of people enjoying a late afternoon stroll on Las Ramblas, a predominantly pedestrian zone located in the heart of the Catalan capital.
The popular tree-lined street runs around three quarters of a mile through the city center and is one of Barcelona’s most popular locales — boasting a number of the city’s most visited sites as well as cafes, bars, street performers and entertainment.
Who is responsible?
Local police said that the incident was a terror attack.
The driver of the van escaped and is still on the run, according to police.
Two other suspects have been arrested. At a press conference on Thursday, the head of Catalonia Police said one of the suspects is from Morocco and the other is from the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
The perpetrators’ motive is still unclear.
ISIS’ media wing, Amaq, issued a statement that said the attackers are “soldiers of the Islamic State,” although ISIS has not explicitly claimed responsibility for the attack itself. The terror group have not mentioned any names nor did they post any photos or additional details about the perpetrators.
Who are the victims?
By Thursday evening, Catalan government’s minister of the interior, Joaquim Forn said that 13 people had died. At least 80 people were in hospital, with 15 of them in serious condition.
Local officials have said that the number of dead is “bound to rise.”
One Belgian was killed in the attack, Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jose de Pierpont said.
Catalan authorities have dismissed local media reports that had said a hostage situation had taken place following the crash.
Police have sealed off the area and have advised that people should avoid the Plaça de Catalunya and Las Ramblas vicinity.
All scheduled public events have been cancelled. The metro station and other train stations in the vicinity have been temporarily closed.
How are leaders responding?
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tweeted that terrorists “will never defeat a united people who love freedom versus barbarism.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the attack in Barcelona, “revolting,” according to her spokesman.
US President Donald Trump said: “The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!” He later tweeted about a debunked episode related to countering Islamic terrorism.
Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, tweeted that the Eiffel Tower would go dark at 00:45 in tribute to the victims.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898243270169563136″,”author_name”:”Donald J. Trump”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help. Be tough & strong, we love you!&#lt;/p&#gt;– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/898243270169563136″&#gt;August 17, 2017&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
