Law enforcement officials said Thursday that Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone when he planted two improvised explosive devices and then sped a truck into a crowd on New Orleans’ iconic Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
Fourteen people have died and at least 35 more were injured in what FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia called “an act of terrorism” at a press conference.
Raia said that while an investigation is ongoing, there is “no definitive link” between the New Orleans attack and an explosion in Las Vegas that occurred later the same day.
The driver of a Tesla Cybertruck, whom officials later identified as an active-duty soldier, died after pulling up outside a hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump near the Las Vegas Strip. Authorities are still working to determine whether the incident was intentional.
Jabbar, 42, had made his intentions clear on social media, according to authorities. He wanted to show support for the Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIS, Raia said, noting that Jabbar posted four videos to Facebook shortly before he drove onto Bourbon Street. He said in one of them that he initially thought about harming his friends and family but worried that if he did so, the media would focus less on what Jabbar called the “war between the believers and the disbelievers.”
Bourbon Street was reopened to the public Thursday morning, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said. The Sugar Bowl, a college football matchup between Notre Dame and Georgia, is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. Central time on Thursday.
“We do not believe the public is in any danger,” Raia said.
Jabbar is believed to have rented the white Ford truck in Houston on Dec. 30 before driving to New Orleans, speeding through the tourist hot spot around 3 a.m. with an ISIS flag hanging off the truck. He got out of the vehicle, opened fire with police and was shot dead.
Surveillance footage also captured Jabbar placing coolers containing two explosive devices at different spots near Bourbon Street, Raia said, contradicting earlier reports indicating that Jabbar had accomplices and there had been a greater number of bombs.
Two laptops and three phones linked to Jabbar are being analyzed.
Authorities are also searching for clues at a house in Mandeville, Louisiana, just north of New Orleans.
Joshua Jackson, special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed there had been a fire at the Mandeville address, but said that it likely started after Jabbar died.
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Jackson hypothesized that the fire might have been rigged to start at a certain time.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) likened the nascent investigation to starting a jigsaw puzzle.
“From yesterday to today, over 1,000 law enforcement agents and officers, men and women, have been poring over countless amounts of data, videos, surveillances, interviews, tracking down every possible lead that came to us,” Landry said.