The driver in the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans posted videos online touting his support for the Islamic State terrorist group before he drove his truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, the FBI said Thursday.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove from Texas to Louisiana on New Year’s Eve and informed his followers of his plans, according to Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.
“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” Raia said, adding that Jabbar acted alone. “He was 100% inspired by ISIS.”
Jabbar posted five Facebook videos from about 1:30 a.m. to 3 a.m., where he confesses he joined ISIS before this summer, Raia said. Jabbar, whom police shot and killed, also provided a will and testament.
“We’re confident at this point that he had no accomplices,” Raia said.
Jabbar died in a gunfight with police officers, officials said. He shot two officers.
The FBI received more than 400 tips from the public and has continued to look for more information into why and how, if any, the two incidents are linked.
“We are looking in everything in his life,” he said. “Whether you know Jabbar personally, worked with him, served in the military or saw him in New Orleans or Texas, we need to talk to you.”
The FBI recovered three cellphones and two laptops linked to Jabbar, who served in the Army on active duty from 2006 to 2015 and then in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020.
Civil records show Jabbar was married twice, with his first marriage ending in 2012 and his second in 2022.
Officials also recovered bombs, taped inside the coolers, were made of galvanized pipe with end caps, and they contained nails inside them, according to two senior U.S. law enforcement officials.
