NEW ORLEANS — The cousin of a Baton Rouge man killed in this week's random attack on New Year's Eve revelers in the French Quarter said Thursday that even if the perpetrator had announced his intentions, the loss would still be painful.

Reggie Hunter, 37, died early Wednesday after traveling to New Orleans to take part in Bourbon Street celebrations marking the start of a new year. The FBI says a Texas man rented a pickup truck and drove to Louisiana to carry out the attack, which left 14 dead.

"Even if he wrote a letter saying 'I'm going to go on Bourbon Street and trample 30 people and kill them all' ... it wouldn't bring you comfort," Shirell Jackson told Good Morning America on Thursday. "It's still evil ... to have him to tell you doesn't change it."

Hunter, the father of two, was one of 14 people killed when a truck was driven through a crowd of people in a suspected terrorist attack early Wednesday morning on Bourbon Street. The pickup truck driver, Shamshun-Din Jabbar, 42, also died; police shot him after he crashed the pickup truck and later shot at responding police officers.

Jackson said she received a text message from Hunter at 12:07 a.m. on New Year's Day. He sent the message to wish her a happy new year.

"I'm grateful that I have it," Jackson said.

Jackson identified Hunter at a New Orleans hospital. She said her family has already begun to make funeral arrangements, and a sister has set up a fundraising account to help with expenses.

"(We) just bear down and do what has to be done, plan the service and give him the best homegoing that we can to celebrate him," Jackson said.

Jackson told ABC reporters that the tragic events in New Orleans were a reminder that there are bad people in this world, alluding to Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspected terrorist behind the attack that killed her cousin.

Jackson says Jabbar's actions made her very angry.

"How can you have that much hate in your heart?" she said. She called the assault "pure evil."

In the meantime, she hopes to remember her cousin as he lived.

"Reggie was a spectacular father. He loved his boys," Jackson said, beaming with pride for her cousin. "(He was) just an all-around great person. When people talk about this, it's always 'that person was the best.' And sometimes it just is. There's bad people, but there's so many more good people. And Reggie was a good person."