New Orleans truck terror attack: FBI investigates suspect’s radicalization on Bourbon St
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are expected in New Orleans on Friday, days after an alleged terrorist drove a truck into New Year’s revelers, killing 14 people before dying in a shootout with police.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security on Friday issued a bulletin to approximately 18,000 law enforcement agencies across the country, including many local police and sheriff’s departments, warning those in uniform to be on high alert for copycat attacks following the bloodbath seen on Bourbon Street. The bulletin discusses how ISIS has promoted vehicle attacks for a decade and provides signs that law enforcement should be on the lookout for.
The bulletin does not include any specific intelligence related to a specific copycat attack and serves as a general warning for people to be vigilant.
The FBI released chilling new surveillance footage Thursday showing the now-deceased suspect — 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar — just about an hour before he allegedly drove a rented Ford pickup through the crowd Bourbon Street entertainers in an attack that officials say was inspired by the Islamic State. More than 30 others were injured. Despite a previous investigation into potential accomplices in the attack, the FBI said Thursday that the bureau is confident that Jabbar acted alone.
The investigation has now turned to how Jabbar, a US Army veteran who recently held a six-figure job, was radicalized. He grew up Muslim in Texas and most recently lived in Houston.
“This investigation is just over 24 hours old and at this time we have no indication that anyone other than Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar was involved in this attack,” said FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia of the Counterterrorism Division at to the FBI. Headquarters said Thursday. “The FBI is sending people and assets to this area from across the region and across the country. Special agents in field offices across the country are assisting with potential aspects of this investigation and following up on leads. Additional teams of special agents, specialist personnel, and victim experts continue to arrive to provide more investigative powers and assistance to victims and their families.”
“Let’s be very clear – what happened here in New Orleans was an act of terrorism. It was a premeditated and evil act,” he added.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK IN NEW ORLEANS
Surveillance images released by the FBI show Jabbar, dressed neatly in a long tan coat, dark button-up shirt, blue jeans and brown dress shoes, walking down Dauphine Street near Governor Nicholls St. at 2:03 a.m. CST – about an hour before the attack. Additional images showed coolers that Jabbar allegedly placed on the street. Officials said he planted improvised explosive devices inside with the intention of causing more carnage.
The FBI released surveillance photos showing Shamsud-Din Jabbar an hour before he drove the truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans early on January 1, 2025. (Federal Bureau of Investigation via AP)
Federal authorities were also searching an Airbnb property in New Orleans rented by Jabbar that caught fire early Wednesday morning, as well as Jabbar’s home in Houston.
Bourbon Street — known around the world for its music, outdoor drinking and festive atmospheres — reopened for business early Thursday afternoon.
College football’s Sugar Bowl game between Notre Dame and Georgia, which was postponed for a day due to national security concerns, was played Thursday night. The Joan of Arc parade in the French Quarter is still scheduled for Monday to kick off the carnival season ahead of Mardi Gras, said Antoinette de Alteriis, one of the organizers. She said they expect close to the usual number of about 30,000 attendees.
The FBI continued to search for leads on Jabbar, but a day into the investigation, the agency said it was confident no one else helped him in the attack, which killed the 18-year-old aspiring nurse, single mother, father of two and former football star. Princeton University, among others.
The FBI said that hours before the attack, Jabbar, a US citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook profile proclaiming his support for the Islamic State group and foreshadowing the violence he would soon unleash in the famous French Quarter neighborhood. . It was the deadliest IS-inspired attack on US soil in years, exposing what federal officials warned was a new threat from international terrorism.
It also comes as the FBI and other agencies prepare for a dramatic shakeup in leadership and likely policy changes once President-elect Donald Trump’s administration takes office.
Raia stressed that there was no indication of a link between the New Orleans attack and the explosion of an explosives-laden Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel on Wednesday.
Plans to attack New Orleans also included planting crude bombs in neighborhoods in an apparent attempt to spark more carnage, officials said. Two improvised explosive devices left in coolers a few blocks away have been moved to a safe location. Other devices were found not to be working.
Investigators were also trying to understand more about Jabbar’s path to radicalization, which they say culminated in him picking up a rental truck in Houston on Dec. 30 and driving it to New Orleans the next night.
The FBI recovered a black ISIS flag from Jabbar’s rental truck and reviewed five videos posted on Facebook, including one in which he said he originally planned to hurt his family and friends, but worried that news headlines would not focus on “a war between believers and unbelievers,” Raia said. Jabbar also stated that he joined IS before last summer and made a last will and testament, the FBI said.
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving active duty in human resources and information technology and deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said.
He joined the reserve of the Armed Forces in 2015, and left it in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
Jabbar’s half-brother told Fox News that the alleged New Orleans gunman was radicalized and struggled to find himself.
Fox News spoke with Abdur Rahim-Jabbar in Beaumont, Texas, where he grew up with three other siblings.
Abdur said the adults were Muslim, as was his entire family. He said Jabbar had drifted away from Islam but returned after the divorce in 2022.
Jabbar has struggled to find himself his whole life, his half-brother told Fox News. He said his half-brother joined the military to “find something, to straighten him out, to ground him and maybe find a viable career.”
After Jabbar’s two divorces, his brother said he was “looking for some kind of guidance.” His half-brother blamed radicalization for the attack and said he saw no signs before the attack, and expressed his condolences for the lives lost. He said it was “not a direct reflection of his brother and the Muslim community.”
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A US government official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that Jabbar traveled to Egypt in 2023, stayed in Cairo for a week, before returning to the US and then traveling to Toronto for three days. It was not immediately clear what he was doing during those trips.
On Bourbon Street, flowers and candles were placed in memory of the victims, while yellow bollards were placed on the surrounding blocks. By Thursday night, bouncers were dancing to music blaring from clubs, tourists were posing for photos, and a group of street performers about to topple a line of people had no problem attracting a huge crowd.
David Spunt and Brooke Taylor of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
