The man responsible for a deadly New Orleans vehicle rampage acted alone, the FBI says
Latest:
- Truck driver in New Orleans attack acted alone, FBI says.
- The agency is calling it a terrorist act inspired by ISIS, an Islamist militant group.
- There is no “definitive” link between the Bourbon Street attack and the deadly explosion in Las Vegas.
- The driver posted videos on Facebook before the attack, declaring his intent to be violent.
The FBI now says the pickup truck driver responsible for a deadly crash on Bourbon Street in New Orleans acted alone, saying Thursday that their investigation disproved their initial suspicion that he was working with others.
A man drove a hired truck into New Year’s Eve crowds in the city early Wednesday, killing 14 people and injuring dozens of others in what is being investigated as an act of terrorism.
At first, investigators said they were looking for other suspects, but Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said Thursday that evidence now shows that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, is solely responsible for the attack and has pledged allegiance to ISIS. Islamist militant group. He was killed in a shootout with the police shortly after the attack.
“We are confident at this point that there are no accomplices,” Raia told reporters.
The FBI also found that Jabbar, a US-born citizen of Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack, in which he expressed support for the militant group and predicted the violence he would soon unleash on the city’s famous French Quarter.
FBI official Christopher Raia said Thursday that investigators do not believe at this time that anyone other than the defendants were involved in the New Orleans truck attack, which he described as an “act of terrorism” that killed 14 innocent people.
There is no indication of a connection to the Vegas blast
Rifles and pipe bombs were found in the suspect’s vehicle, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.
The devices were hidden inside the refrigerator and connected to remote detonation with a remote control that was also found in the vehicle, the bulletin says.
“A lot of the early reports came out that there were additional people setting up the coolers,” Raia said, leading investigators to believe there were accomplices.
He explained that it turned out to be citizens who simply picked up the already installed refrigerators.
“We didn’t know that at first, so we had to find it and forget about it.”
While none of those people are believed to be involved “in any way,” Raia says investigators would like to speak to them as witnesses. He said investigators do not believe there is any further danger to the public related to the attack.
Officials initially put the death toll at 15, but the FBI clarified Thursday that the death toll included Jabbar.
It was the deadliest ISIS-inspired attack on US soil in years, and it comes as the FBI and other agencies prepare for dramatic changes in leadership — and likely policy changes — once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Raia stressed that there was no indication of a connection between the attack in New Orleans and the one on Wednesday Tesla Cybertruck explosion in front of Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas.
The person in that truck, a decorated U.S. Army Green Beret, was shot in the head before the explosion, and a gun was found at his feet inside the charred vehicle, authorities said Thursday.
Fire in the rented house where the suspect was staying
Officials are just beginning to piece together the pieces of the Bourbon Street attack, which left one person dead 18-year-old aspiring nurse, single mother, father of two, and former Princeton University football staramong other things.
“We know he specifically chose Bourbon Street,” Raia said.
In the past 24 hours, investigators conducted hundreds of interviews and reviewed Jabbar’s social media accounts, three cellphones and two laptops linked to Jabbar. According to Raija, they found nothing to indicate that he had any help in planning and carrying out the attack.
The device in the refrigerator and another explosive device were removed to the scene, while the others were found to be inoperable.
People celebrating New Year’s in New Orleans instead found themselves among a scene of carnage after a pickup truck driver plowed into a crowd on historic Bourbon Street early Wednesday morning. One eyewitness described seeing the aftermath from a nightclub balcony minutes after the attack: ‘It’s something you can’t help but see. You will never forget.’
Federal authorities are also investigating a fire that broke out early Wednesday at an Airbnb rental in the St. Roch in New Orleans.
Jabbar is believed to have been staying at that address, and laptops linked to him were found there, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent Joshua Jackson told reporters.
Jackson said it appears the fire started after Jabbar was killed.
“There are many different ways this can happen,” he said. “You could have different timing devices. You could have a long cable that extended that time. You could also have pressure cookers that were placed on top of a stove filled with gasoline and then went off.”
Suspect ‘100 percent inspired by ISIS’
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 following night.
Raia says investigators are digging through more of Jabbar’s social media to learn more about his connection with the militant group.
“What I can tell you now is that it was 100 percent inspired by ISIS,” he said.
The FBI said Wednesday it recovered an ISIS flag, black with white lettering, from the vehicle used in the attack.
The FBI reviewed five videos posted on Facebook, including one in which Jabbar said he originally planned to harm his family and friends but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on a “war between believers and non-believers,” Raia said.
He also left a last will and testament, the FBI said.
Public records show Jabbar worked in real estate in Houston. In a promotional video released four years ago, he described being born and raised in Beaumont, a city about 130 kilometers east of Houston.
Jabbar joined the U.S. 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 army reserve in 2015, and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
‘You don’t feel the reel’
Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, Jabbar’s younger brother, told The Associated Press on Thursday that it “doesn’t seem real” that his brother could have done it.
“I never would have thought it was him,” he said. “It’s completely different from him.”
He said that his brother has been isolated in recent years, but that he has also been in contact with him and that he does not see any signs of radicalization.
“It completely contradicts who he was and how he was known to his family and friends,” he said.
Jenn Williams, whose family friend, Hubert Gauthreaux, was killed in a truck attack in New Orleans that the FBI is investigating as terrorism, said the 21-year-old had ‘so much life to live’.
The city is returning to normal
By Thursday, New Orleans was nearing normal. Authorities finished processing the scene of the attack early in the morning and removed the last bodies. Bourbon Street — known around the world for its music, outdoor drinking and festive atmospheres — reopened for business until the early afternoon.
The college football Sugar Bowl game between Notre Dame and Georgia, originally scheduled for Wednesday night and pushed back a day in the interest of national security, was still scheduled for Thursday. The city also planned to host the Super Bowl next month.
New Orleans “is not only ready for game day today, but we are ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city because we are built to host every step of the way,” said New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
