Multiple deaths after New Year ‘terror attack’ in New Orleans
A bombshell new development has reportedly linked the New Orleans terror suspect and the driver of the Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas.
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The suspected terrorist who killed at least 15 New Year’s revellers in New Orleans and injured dozens more served at the same military base as the driver who blew himself up in a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump property in Las Vegas hours later, local media is reporting.
Authorities are investigating a possible connection between Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, and Matthew Livelsberger, 37, sources told Denver ABC affiliate Denver7.
Jabbar drove a pick-up truck into crowds in New Orleans in the early hours of Wednesday. The same morning, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas killing the occupant and injuring several others.
The Cybertruck driver has been named by news station KOAA as Livelsberger, a Colorado Springs resident. The blast is being investigated as a possible terrorist attack, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
The New Orleans attack is being treated by law enforcement as an act of terrorism.
“As of now, 15 people are deceased. It will take several days to perform all autopsies. Once we complete the autopsies and talk with the next of kin, we will release the identifications of the victims,” the local coroner’s office said.
The driver, who was reportedly killed in a firefight with police officers, was identified as Jabbar, an American-born citizen and military veteran who grew up in Texas.
“After hitting the crowd, he exited the vehicle and fired upon local law enforcement. Law enforcement returned fire and the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene,” the FBI said in a statement.
“Two law enforcement officers were injured and transported to a local hospital.”
President Joe Biden said the suspect had “posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill”.
Chilling footage, which you can see in the video player above, shows the pick-up truck maneouvreing itself into the crowd.
Another security camera video shows the truck flying at high speed down Bourbon Street, narrowly missing pedestrians as they leap out of the way – including one woman who was inches away from death.
An ISIS flag was found in the vehicle, a pick-up truck, which law enforcement believes Jabbar rented. According to The Associated Press, police also found guns and pipe bombs inside the pick-up truck, hidden within coolers.
Those explosives had been wired for remote detonation, and a corresponding remote control was also found in the vehicle.
Meanwhile other explosives were found in the city’s French Quarter. Police initially said footage had shown three men, and a woman, placing “one of multiple improvised explosive devices”. Those people have subsequently been ruled out as suspects.
In that vein, law enforcement believes the suspect may not have acted alone.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” said FBI assistant special agent in charge of the investigation, Alethea Duncan, at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, US time.
“We are running down every lead, including those of his known associates.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill hinted that the death penalty would be sought for any other suspects found to be involved.
“In Louisiana we have the death penalty and we will carry it out!” she posted on X.
The pick-up truck in question, a Ford electric vehicle, had been rented via the app Turo. Its owner, another 42-year-old man, had listed it for rent and is now speaking to police.
“We are heartbroken to learn that one of our hosts’ vehicles was involved in this awful incident,” Turo’s vice president of communications, Steve Webb, said in a statement.
“We are actively partnering with the FBI. We are not currently aware of anything in this guest’s background that would have identified him as a trust and safety threat to us at the time of the reservation.”
Turo later said that the vehicle involved in the explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas was also rented through its platform.
Investigators have also recovered bomb-making materials at a New Orleans Airbnb believed to be connected to the attack.
A small fire had broken out at the property in question at around 5.30am on Mandeville Street in the Marigny neighbourhood about a mile away from Bourbon Street “that was connected to this event where we believe the IEDs were being made”, Ms Murrill told NBC.
Suspect’s erratic behaviour
The New York Times has spoken to Dwayne Marsh, who is now married to Jabbar’s ex-wife Nakedra Charrlle. Jabbar and Ms Charrlle had two daughters, currently aged 15 and 20.
Mr Marsh told the newspaper Jabbar had, at some point, converted to Islam, and had recently been behaving erratically, leading Ms Charrlle to stop the girls from seeing their father.
“The girls are a mess,” Mr Marsh said, adding that Jabbar was “being all crazy, cutting his hair” after his conversion.
Jabbar’s brother, Abdur Jabbar, 24, told The New York Times “radicalisation” was to blame for the rampage.
He said what his brother did “did does not represent Islam – this is more some type of radicalisation, not religion”.
The authorities have sealed off a house in Houston, Texas, related to the New Orleans attack. Jabbar was from Texas.
According to The New York Post, a man was seen being ordered, by a SWAT team, to raise his hands outside that house.
The man, who has not been identified, had guns pointed at him before he complied.
First victims identified
We are beginning to learn the names of the attack’s victims.
Reggie Hunter, 37, had reportedly gone to the scene of the crime “on a whim” to celebrate the end of 2024 with his cousin. Mr Hunter is dead; the cousin is among those injured.
Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, an 18-year-old from Mississippi, is also among the dead.
Nicole Perez, a 28-year-old worker at a deli, leaves behind a four-year-old son.
Tiger Bech, 27, was a young worker at a brokerage company in New York. The local Louisiana news outlet NOLA reports he was kept on life support until his family could arrive and say goodbye to him.
‘It’s not just terrorism, it’s evil’
It’s been reported that security barriers designed to prevent exactly this kind of attack were not in operation at the time, as they were being repaired ahead of the Super Bowl, which New Orleans is hosting next month.
The Louisiana city was already packed, not just because of the festive holidays, but also due to the high profile Sugar Bowl college football match, which is played on January 1 each year. That match has now been postponed for 24 hours.
“Because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator – he went around our barricades in order to conduct this – he was hellbent on creating carnage,” chief of the New Orleans Police Department Anne Kirkpatrick told reporters.
“This is not just terrorism, this is evil,” she added.
The incident occurred at 3.15am, local time (8.15pm AEDT), on Bourbon Street, in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter, which is usually bustling with tourists.
The narrow street, almost an alley, is lined with historic balcony-fronted buildings, most of which house bars and restaurants.
Scores of people still celebrating after ringing in the New Year were hit on the thoroughfare, near the intersection with Canal Street.
The man drove “down Bourbon Street at a very fast pace,” police chief Kirkpatrick said, “trying to run over as many people as he possibly could”.
The driver then left the vehicle and shot at police, at least two of whom were injured. Police returned fire, killing him.
It’s been reported that the vehicle used was a white coloured Ford F-150 Lightning pick up truck with Texas licence plates. Investigators have been seen surrounding a pick-up truck with a crumpled and warped bonnet.
‘Unimaginable carnage’
The FBI has confirmed it is being treated as a terror incident.
Local police have said that while Bourbon Street was a location popular with tourists, most of the casualties were thought at this stage to be locals.
Eyewitnesses have spoken of the horrific scene that unfolded.
Talking to CNN, Jimmy Cothran said he saw people crushed with tyre marks on their bodies where they had been run over.
“It was unimaginable carnage. The disfigurement, bodies strewn, it’s something I will never forget,” Mr Cothran said.
“I saw someone twisted up, obviously deceased. We counted eight bodies very quickly in our area.”
“Everyone was just completely in shock,” another witness, Whit Davis, told the BBC.
“I visit New Orleans frequently and have never seen anything close to this bad.”
Video of suspect surfaces
A resurfaced video on YouTube shows Jabbar describing his background.
“I just want to say a bit a about me,” he begins in the footage.
“I was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas and now live in Houston. I’ve been here for all my life with the exception of the travelling with the military, where I spent 10 years as a human resources specialist.”
Jabbar claimed that in 2022, as he went through his second divorce, he could not afford his house payments.
“It is past due in excess of $US27,000 and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce,” he wrote in emails, according to The New York Times.
Security barriers were not in operation
Despite law enforcement’s claim that the suspect ran over barricades, it’s been revealed that metal barriers, installed due to similar terror attacks abroad as well as drunk drivers accidentally colliding with pedestrians in the French Quarter, were not in operation on Bourbon Street.
Local news website Nola.com reported the barriers were being replaced ahead of next month’s Super Bowl, which is being held in the city.
“They were very ineffective. The track was always full of crap; beads and doubloons and God knows what else. Not the best idea,” Bob Simms, who until recently worked for the French Quarter Management District, told Nola.com.
“Eventually everybody realised the need to replace them. They’re in the process of doing that, but the new ones are not yet operational.”
Instead, plastic barricades, metal temporary fencing and police were blocking streets. Police said the attacker drove around barricades on top of the footpath.
“We had a plan, but the terrorists defeated it,” police chief Kirkpatrick said.
Biden, Trump respond
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he was “praying for all the victims and first responders on scene”.
“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning. I urge all near the scene to avoid the area,” Mr Landry said.
US President Joe Biden said he was grateful for the swift action of local police that prevented further death and injury.
He said authorities would “get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible … to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind”.
“My heart goes out to the victims and their families, who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
President-elect Donald Trump first expressed sympathy for the victims, saying: “Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones.”
He then blasted crime levels, and alluded to immigration. Mr Trump made “migrant crime” a core theme of his recent, and successful, election campaign.
“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true,” he posted on social media.
“The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before.”
To reiterate: the suspect in this incident was reportedly born in the United States, and was a US citizen.
Incoming First Lady Melania Trump also denounced the attack.
“The incidents of violence that have impacted our communities are deeply concerning,” Mrs Trump wrote on X.
“The brutality must stop. My heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families who are experiencing such profound grief and loss. Let us strive for a future where peace prevails.”
– with AFP
Originally published as Multiple deaths after New Year ‘terror attack’ in New Orleans
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