Staff Reports
The investigation into the truck attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street after a driver plowed into a crowd of people celebrating the New Year Jan. 1. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, killed 14 people and injured dozens more.
The FBI held a Jan. 5 press conference in which they went into more detail about Jabbar’s actions leading up to the attack.
Jabbar, who authorities said acted alone in the attack on Bourbon Street, traveled to Cairo, Egypt, from June 22 to July 3,, then returned to the U.S. In a separate trip on July 10, he traveled to Ontario, Canada, and returned to the U.S. a few days later. The FBI also said Jabbar visited Tampa, FL. recently.
He also made at least two trips to New Orleans in October and November prior to the deadly attack and recorded video of Bourbon Street with Meta smart glasses.
“Our agents are getting answers to where he went, who he went with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here,” Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans Field Office, said.
While it remains unclear whether those trips were connected to the attack, FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said the agency is investigating whether Jabbar had any associates in the U.S. or overseas.
“All investigative details and evidence that we have now still support that Jabbar acted alone here in New Orleans,” Raia said. “We have not seen any indications of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking into potential associates in the U.S. and outside of our borders.”
Jabbar, an Army veteran from Houston, plowed a rented Ford pick-up through a crowd of Bourbon Street revelers in the attack that officials say was inspired by the Islamic State. Dozens of others were injured in the truck attack and Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police.
The FBI recovered a black ISIS flag from the rented truck and found that Jabbar pledged allegiance to ISIS in online videos posted hours before the attack.
Jabbar also set a fire on Mandeville Street before heading to Bourbon Street, which was later speculated to be a distraction before he carried out the attack.
He was wearing Meta glasses at the time of the vehicle attack, but did not activate the glasses to live stream his actions that day, according to Myrthil.
Jabbar purchased ice chests in Texas on Dec. 31, that he used to hide IEDs before entering Louisiana and going to a home that he rented, officials said. Hours later, in the early morning of Jan. 1, Jabbar placed IEDs at two locations. Video released by the FBI shows him placing one of the chests at Bourbon and Saint Peter Street and a second at Bourbon and Toulouse Streets. Officials said he botched the detonation of the devices during his attack.
“He didn’t have access to a detonator, so he used an electric match in its place to try to set off the explosive material,” Joshua Jackson, ATF Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Field Division, said. “It’s not novel. What was different is he didn’t use the right or the correct device to set it off. And that is just indicative of his inexperience and lack of understanding of how that material might be set off.”
