The Army veteran who drove a pickup truck right into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans acted alone, the FBI mentioned Thursday, reversing its place from a day earlier that he probably labored with others within the lethal assault that officers mentioned was impressed by the Islamic State group.
The FBI additionally revealed that the driving force, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an American citizen from Texas, posted 5 movies on his Facebook account within the hours earlier than the assault during which he proclaimed his assist for the militant group and previewed the violence that he would quickly unleash within the famed French Quarter district.
“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” mentioned Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, calling Jabbar “100% impressed” by the Islamic State.
The assault alongside Bourbon Street killed 14 revelers, together with Jabbar, 42, who was fatally shot in a firefight with police after steering his dashing truck round a barricade and plowing into the gang. About 30 individuals have been injured.
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Deadliest IS-inspired assault on US soil in years
It was the deadliest IS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years, laying naked what federal officers have warned is a resurgent worldwide terrorism menace. It additionally comes because the FBI and different businesses brace for dramatic management upheaval — and sure coverage adjustments — after President-elect Donald Trump’s administration takes workplace.
Raia careworn that there was no indication of a connection between the New Orleans assault and the explosion Wednesday of a Tesla Cybertruck crammed with explosives exterior Trump’s Las Vegas resort. The particular person inside that truck, a embellished U.S. Army Green Beret, shot himself within the head simply earlier than detonation, authorities mentioned.
The FBI continued to hunt for clues about Jabbar however mentioned {that a} day into its investigation, it was assured he was not aided by anybody else within the assault, which killed an 18-year-old aspiring nurse, a single mom, a father of two and a former Princeton University soccer star, amongst others.
The assault plans additionally included the location of crude bombs within the neighborhood in an obvious try and trigger extra carnage, officers mentioned. Two improvised explosive units left in coolers a number of blocks aside have been rendered protected on the scene. Other units have been decided to be nonfunctional.
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FBI seeks witnesses in New Orleans assault investigation
Officials reviewed surveillance video exhibiting individuals standing close to one of many coolers however concluded that they weren’t linked “in any manner” with the assault, although investigators nonetheless wish to converse with them as witnesses, Raia mentioned.
Investigators have been additionally attempting to grasp extra about Jabbar’s path to radicalization, which they are saying culminated with him selecting up a rented truck in Houston on Dec. 30 and driving it to New Orleans the next evening.
The FBI recovered a black Islamic State flag from his rented pickup and reviewed 5 movies posted to Facebook, together with one during which he mentioned he initially deliberate to hurt his household and buddies however “was involved that information headlines wouldn’t give attention to the “battle between the believers and the disbelievers,” Raia mentioned. Jabbar additionally acknowledged that he joined IS earlier than final summer time, and he offered a final will and testomony, the FBI mentioned.
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on energetic obligation in human sources and data know-how and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service mentioned. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of workers sergeant.
A U.S. authorities official, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of the official was not approved to talk publicly, mentioned Jabbar traveled to Egypt in 2023, staying in Cairo for per week, earlier than returning to the U.S. after which touring to Toronto for 3 days. It was not instantly clear what he did throughout these travels.
Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, Jabbar’s youthful brother, advised The Associated Press on Thursday that it “doesn’t really feel actual” that his brother might have performed this.
“I by no means would have thought it’d be him,” he mentioned. “It’s fully in contrast to him.”
He mentioned that his brother had been remoted in the previous few years, however that he had additionally been in contact with him not too long ago and had not seen any indicators of radicalization.
“It’s fully contradictory to who he was and the way his household and his buddies know him,” he mentioned.
Chris Pousson, of Beaumont, Texas, mentioned he turned buddies with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in center college, describing him as somebody who was quiet and reserved and didn’t get into hassle.
After highschool, he mentioned, they reconnected on Facebook round 2008 or 2009 and would message backwards and forwards all through the subsequent decade.
“If any crimson flags would have popped off, I’d have caught them, and I’d have contacted the correct authorities,” he mentioned. “But he didn’t give something to me that may have prompt that he’s able to doing what occurred.”
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In New Orleans on Thursday, a still-reeling metropolis inched again towards regular operations.
Authorities completed processing the scene early within the morning, eradicating the final of the our bodies, and Bourbon Street — well-known worldwide for music, open-air ingesting and festive vibes — reopened for enterprise by early afternoon.
The Sugar Bowl school soccer playoff sport between Notre Dame and Georgia, initially set for Wednesday evening and postponed by a day within the curiosity of nationwide safety, was performed Thursday night. The metropolis additionally deliberate to host the Super Bowl subsequent month.
New Orleans “is just not solely prepared for sport day at this time, however we’re able to proceed to host large-scale occasions in our metropolis as a result of we’re constructed to host at each single flip,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell mentioned.