The FBI has now concluded that the individual behind the New Year’s Day terror incident on Bourbon Street in New Orleans was a lone wolf terrorist without any accomplices. The perpetrator, a 42-year-old former US Army serviceman named Shamshud-Din Jabbar, drove his vehicle into party-goers at approximately 3:15 a.m. in the French Quarter, at the junction of Canal and Bourbon Streets, before crashing. He was later shot dead by police.
During a press briefing on Thursday, the FBI classified the event as a terrorist act and indicated that Jabbar likely acted alone. Authorities are investigating whether others were involved in placing IEDs separately from the truck Jabbar used to plough into the crowd.
“We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the subject you’ve already been briefed on,” Deputy Assistant Christopher Raia of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division stated. This statement contrasts with one made less than a day earlier by Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan, who said: “We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible. We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates.”
Police are also probing a potential link between Jabbar and the Cybertruck driver in Las Vegas who caused an explosion outside Trump Tower, following revelations that both had military backgrounds, reports the Express US.
The suspect is said to have operated alone
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Raid declared: “As you know, there’s also an FBI investigation in Las Vegas. We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling everything out. However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas.”
“And again, I’ll preface as I close, I’ll preface everything with what I started with in the beginning, which was this is very early in an investigation like this.”
New Orleans police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick commented that the driver seemed “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
The white truck used by the suspect in the terror attack was riddled with bullets
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After his vehicle came to a halt, the assailant began shooting at police officers who responded by firing back, resulting in the attacker’s death. The confrontation left two officers injured, with both reported to be in a stable condition.
An ISIS flag discovered in the vehicle has led the authorities to investigate any terrorist links the attacker may have had. Weapons and a possible improvised explosive device (IED) were found in his car, with additional suspected IEDs located in the French Quarter.
Over 1,000 law enforcement officers and agents have been meticulously examining data since Wednesday’s incident, New Orleans Gov. Jeff Landry stated.
“From yesterday to today, over a thousand law enforcement agents and officers, men and women, have been pouring over countless amounts of data of videos of surveillance, interviews, tracking down every possible lead that came to us,” Landry said during his announcement of a state of emergency aimed at coordinating local, state, and federal resources more effectively.