‘100 per cent ISIS inspired’: Suspect acted alone amid cybertruck link
The FBI has called the New Orleans truck attack “an act of terrorism” as authorities investigate an exploding cybertruck and whether it could be linked to the deadly attack. Follow for updates.
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The US Army veteran who carried out the truck-ramming attack on revellers in New Orleans, killing 14 and injuring many more, “acted alone” but was “100 per cent inspired” by the Islamic State.
It comes as authorities continue to investigate whether an exploding cybertruck outside of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas has any links to the attack.
Deputy Assistant FBI Director Christopher Raia told reporters that the suspect, identified by authorities as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, acted as a “lone wolf” in a “premeditated and evil act”.
“He was 100 per cent inspired by ISIS,” Mr Raia told a press conference, using another name for the group, while an Islamic State flag was also found in the truck.
The latest information is counter to that provided by the law enforcement agency earlier in the investigation, when it said it believed that multiple people were involved.
Jabbar is believed to have driven a truck into a crowd on a busy New Orleans street, before exiting the vehicle and firing a weapon. He was shot dead by police at the scene.
The FBI said an Islamic State flag was found inside the vehicle he was driving.
Two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were also found nearby, police said.
Surveillance footage viewed by police shows Jabbar placing each of those devices in coolers along the busy Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Mr Raia said.
Jabbar posted a series of online videos in which he proclaimed allegiance to the extremist group before driving a rented truck into a New Year’s crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 14, the FBI said on Thursday local time.
Raia said Jabbar, a native Texan, posted five videos to his Facebook account ahead of the attack.
“In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the quote, ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’” the FBI official said.
CYBERTRUCK EXPLOSION ‘TERROR RELATED’
It comes as a Tesla Cybertruck, which exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday local time, killing one person, is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism, according to US authorities.
Investigators do not believe there’s “any other danger to the community right now,” FBI agent Jeremy Schwartz said.
The sole person inside the vehicle died, and seven people suffered minor injuries, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said. He called the explosion “an isolated incident” and said there is no indication that it was linked to ISIS.
TRUMP SLAMS US
Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump ripped into the US as a “disaster” and global “laughing stock” in the wake of the deadly New Orleans terror attack and Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside his Las Vegas hotel.
In a fiery social media post, Mr Trump blasted the country’s “weak” leadership for failing to protect Americans from “violent scum” — just hours after authorities revealed they were probing the two New Year’s Day incidents as terror-related.
“Our country is a disaster, a laughing stock [sic] all over the world,” the 78-year-old said via his Truth Social platform.
“The DOJ, FBI, and Democrat state and local prosecutors have not done their job,” he wrote.
“They are incompetent and corrupt, having spent all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself.”
Mr Trump, who stopped short of mentioning the two deadly incidents directly, went on to blame “ineffective and virtually nonexistent leadership” for the current state of the country.
“The USA is breaking down – a violent erosion of Safety, National Security, and Democracy is taking place all across our Nation,” he said.
His rant came hours after Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an ISIS flag-carrying US Army veteran, mowed down New Orleans revelers with a pickup truck in a deadly attack — killing at least 15 and injuring dozens.
Meanwhile, authorities are also investigating the Tesla Cybertruck explosion that occurred outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel on Wednesday as a possible act of terror.
POLICE CHIEF OUTLINES TERROR STRATEGY
Meanwhile, New Orleans’ police chief has outlined her strategy to prevent a further terror attack after an Islamic State-inspired terrorist mowed down dozens of people on the city’s famed Bourbon Street.
Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said her officers were prepared for the crowds expected as New Orleans hosts the play off game between college teams from Notre Dame and Georgie universities.
“We are going to have absolutely hundreds of officers and staff lining our streets, lining Bourbon Street, lining the French Quarter,” Supt Kirkpatrick said in an interview on US TV.
“We are staffing up at the same level, if not more so, than what we were preparing for the Super Bowl.
“We will have much heavier equipment to harden these softer targets.”
New Orleans is no stranger to major events.
The city hosted the Super Bowl last February and is slated to do so again this year.
New Orleans Criminal Justice Committee chairman Oliver Thomas told CNN taxpayers were rightfully angry at having to foot the bill to thwart this level of violence.
“Even if we’re successful at preventing some of these events, the evil people are successful at making us redirect our finances that could go to help American citizens and help American programs, and we’re putting it into security just so we can stay alive and be safe. That’s crazy,” Mr Thomas said.
“Even when we are safe, they’re winning because those are funds that American cities and other communities could use to help our seniors or help our children.”
The FBI officially cleared the crime scene at Bourbon St on Thursday morning local time.
As the evidence collection process has concluded, cleaning crews have moved in with a grim task ahead of them.
In one of the deadliest attacks on US soil since September 11, 14 people were killed and dozens more were injured when Shamsud Din Jabbar ploughed through the famed Bourbon St party strip that was filled with revellers at 3.15am (local time) on New Year’s Day.
The Army veteran then shot two police officers in a brief firefight in which he was killed.
An Islamic State flag was flying on Jabbar’s rented vehicle and improvised explosive devices were discovered inside. As first responders urgently evacuated the French Quarter and swept the area, they discovered more potential bombs nearby.
Four people suspected of planting one of the devices were later cleared of any involvement.
The 42-year-old US citizen recorded videos prior to the attack in which he spoke about being “inspired by ISIS” and expressed “a desire to kill”, according to US President Joe Biden.
He said the FBI was urgently investigating “whether there’s any continuing threat to public safety”, as a blockbuster college football game due to be played in New Orleans on the night of January 1 was postponed by 24 hours.
“The situation is very fluid and the investigation is at a preliminary stage,” Mr Biden said.
“No one should jump to conclusions.”
Authorities were also scrambling to figure out if the attack was connected to an explosion in a Tesla Cybertruck several hours later outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by Donald Trump.
Amid the fallout, prominent Republicans questioned how the FBI failed to prevent the attack, while city officials admitted they had not installed working barriers and bollards to secure the area that is popular with locals and tourists alike. Chilling footage showed Jabbar driving on a footpath to bypass a police car that was blocking the street to begin his deadly rampage.
“He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could.”
“This is not just an act of terrorism – this is evil.”
Australia’s terror threat level remained at “probable” in the wake of the attack. No Australians were believed to have been caught up in the incident, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned as a “shocking act of violence”.
MILITARY VETERAN
Jabbar served in the US Army as a human resources and IT specialist from 2007 to 2015, and then in the army reserve until 2020, the Pentagon said.
He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 until January 2010, an army spokesman said, and he held the rank of staff sergeant when honourably discharged.
The Wall Street Journal said he was awarded the Global War on Terrorism medal for his service in Afghanistan.
After leaving the military, Jabbar worked in real estate in Houston and most recently as a “senior solutions specialist” with the consulting firm Deloitte, where the Journal reported he was earning nearly A$200,000 a year.
In a video posted on YouTube four years ago, Jabbar — speaking with a southern US accent — boasted of his skills as a “fierce negotiator” as he advertised his property management services to potential clients.
Jabbar was twice-married, according to The New York Times, and had three children.
After his second marriage ended in divorce in 2022, he detailed his financial problems in an email to his wife’s lawyer.
“I cannot afford the house payment,” he reportedly wrote, adding that his real estate company had lost more than A$45,000 in the previous year, and he had taken on thousands of dollars in credit card debt to pay for lawyers.
Jabbar’s younger brother, Abdur Jabbar, told The New York Times in Beaumont, Texas, where they grew up, that his brother was “a sweetheart really, a nice guy, a friend, really smart,
caring.”
He said his brother had converted to Islam at a young age, but that “what he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalisation, not religion.”
Criminal records reported by the Times show that Jabbar had two previous charges for minor offences — one in 2002 for theft and another in 2005 for driving with an invalid license.
Georgia State University confirmed to reporters that Jabbar attended the university from 2015-2017, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer systems.
In his YouTube video — later removed by moderators — Jabbar spoke highly about his time serving in the US military.
He said that with this experience, he “learned the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting I’s and crossing T’s to make sure that things go off without a hitch.”
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