ISIS Connection and Video Recordings: Details Emerge About Suspect in New Orleans Terror Attack
More details have emerged about the suspect in the New Year’s Day morning terror attack that killed 15 people in New Orleans.
Authorities previously identified the man who drove a pickup truck into New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native and an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. Following the attack, which the FBI called “an act of terrorism,” Jabbar was killed after exchanging gunfire with police officers.
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According to CNN, prior to the attack and while driving from Texas to Louisiana, Jabbar recorded a series of videos to social media where he first discussed gathering his family for a “celebration” during which he planned to kill them, but then changed his plans and spoke about his dreams to join ISIS; a flag of the terrorist group was reportedly found in Jabbar’s rented pickup truck during the attack, along with incendiary devices.
The pipe bombs found in Jabbar’s rented truck were reportedly made at a New Orleans-area Airbnb that the suspect rented prior to the attack; a house fire was reported at that Airbnb location on Wednesday morning.
“He was 100 percent inspired by ISIS,” Deputy Assistant Christopher Raia with the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division said at a press conference today. “And so we’re digging — we’re digging through more of the social media, more interviews, working with some of our other partners just how to ascertain a little bit more about that connection.”
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007 and served on active duty as a human resources and information technology before deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the Army said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015, leaving with the rank of staff sergeant in 2020.
In 2015, Jabbar was arrested and found guilty of DUI charges following an incident near the former Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Five years later, in 2020, a Texas judge granted Jabbar’s second wife a restraining order against him during their divorce case, CNN reported.
While authorities initially announced that “we do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible [for the attack],” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said Wednesday, the FBI today reversed that statement. “We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved,” Raia said today.
The pickup truck was rented on the online platform Turo, which CNN reports was also used to rent the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside a Donald Trump-owned hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday and killed its driver. Authorities are investigating whether there was a connection between the two incidents.
At least 15 people were killed, and more than 30 others were injured in New Orleans after the vehicle was purposely driven into a crowd during New Year’s celebrations. Jabbar reportedly managed to navigate past safety measures and barricades put in place in anticipation of Wednesday’s Sugar Bowl, which was postponed to today following the attack.
“We are going to have absolutely hundreds of officers and staff lining our streets, lining Bourbon Street, lining the French Quarter,” police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told NBC’s Today show this morning ahead of the college football game. “So we are staffing up at the same level, if not more so, than what we were preparing for the Super Bowl.”
“I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you as you mourn and as you heal,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday in a statement to New Orleans. “My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
The terror attack in New Orleans was the deadliest in the U.S. since a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, killed 18 people in October 2023.
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