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By ERIC TUCKER, JIM MUSTIAN, KEVIN McGILL and JACK BROOK Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A U.S. Army veteran driving a pickup truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group wrought carnage on New Orleans’ raucous New Year’s celebration, killing 15 people as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police.
The FBI said it is investigating the attack early Wednesday as a terrorist act and does not believe the driver acted alone. Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle, along with other devices elsewhere in the city’s famed French Quarter.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI found videos that the driver had posted to social media hours before the attack in which he said he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressed a desire to kill.
The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre mayhem of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. A college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome was postponed until Thursday.
Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barreling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air.”
“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” said Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed.
“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, Kirkpatrick said, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, and said it is working to determine his potential associations with terrorist organizations.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said at a news conference.
Investigators found multiple improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.
The bulletin, relying on preliminary information gathered soon after the attack, also said surveillance footage showed three men and a woman placing one of the devices, but federal officials did not immediately confirm that detail and it wasn’t clear who they were or what connection they had to the attack, if any.
Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl in February.
Jabbar was killed by police after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two were shot and are in stable condition.
Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
There were also deadly explosions in Honolulu and outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump. Biden said the FBI is looking into whether the Las Vegas explosion was connected to the New Orleans attack but had “nothing to report” as of Wednesday evening.
A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed. The intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said he was wearing a ballistic vest and helmet. The flag of the Islamic State group was on the truck’s trailer hitch, the FBI said.
“For those people who don’t believe in objective evil, all you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning,” U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said. “If this doesn’t trigger the gag reflex of every American, every fair-minded American, I’ll be very surprised.”
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
Hours after the attack, several coroner’s office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry urged people to avoid the area, which remained an active crime scene.
“We looked out our front door and saw caution tape and dead silence and it’s eerie,” said Tessa Cundiff, an Indiana native who moved to the French Quarter a few years ago. “This is not what we fell in love with, it’s sad.”
Nearby, life went on as normal in the city known to some for a motto that translates to “let the good times roll.” At a cafe a block from where the truck came to rest, people crowded in for breakfast as upbeat pop music played. Two blocks away, people drank at a bar, seemingly as if nothing happened.
Biden, speaking from the presidential retreat at Camp David, called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act.” Addressing the victims and the people of New Orleans, he said: “I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you as you mourn and as you heal.”
“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said in a statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence and the deadliest IS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years.
FBI officials have repeatedly warned about an elevated international terrorism threat due to the Israel-Hamas war. In the last year, the agency has disrupted other potential attacks, including in October when it arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma for an alleged Election Day plot targeting large crowds.
Tucker reported from Washington, D.C. and Mustian reported from Black Mountain, North Carolina. Associated Press reporters Stephen Smith, Chevel Johnson and Brett Martel in New Orleans; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Alanna Durkin Richer and Zeke Miller in Washington, D.C.; and Darlene Superville in New Castle, Delaware; Colleen Long in West Palm Beach, Florida; and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.
From earlier:
FBI identifies driver who killed 10
The FBI confirmed that it has identified the driver who killed 10 people and injured dozens in New Orleans as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar. Investigators are working to gather additional information about Jabbar’s background and investigating an Islamic State flag that was with the vehicle, the FBI said.
Islamic State group flag found in vehicle used in New Orleans attack, FBI says
An Islamic State group flag was recovered in the vehicle used by the attacker who killed at least 10 people early Wednesday in New Orleans, the FBI said in a statement.
The FBI says it is still investigating the attacker, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, to determine “potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.”
Jabbar was killed in a firefight with police following the attack around 3:15 a.m. in an area teeming with New Year’s revelers, the FBI said.
By ERIC TUCKER and JIM MUSTIAN Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A driver rammed a vehicle into a crowd of New Orleans revelers early on New Year’s Day, killing 10 people and injuring 35 others in what the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.
The driver was killed in a firefight with police following the attack around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday along Bourbon Street in the city’s bustling French Quarter, the FBI said.
Investigators were combing the French Quarter for potential explosive devices, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said officials were investigating at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.
At a news conference, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a “terrorist attack” and the city’s police chief said the act was clearly intentional.
New Orleans Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
“It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” Kirkpatrick said.
After the vehicle stopped, the driver emerged and open fire on responding officers, police said. Officers returned fire, killing the driver, police said. Two officers were wounded and are in stable condition, police said.
The area is known as one of the largest New Year’s Eve destinations.
Crowds in the city were ballooning in anticipation of Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl college football playoff game between Georgia and Notre Dame at the nearby Superdome. The stadium was on lockdown Wednesday morning, but the game was expected to go on as scheduled.
Kevin Garcia, 22, told CNN that he saw a truck slamming into people on a sidewalk and heard gunshots.
“A body came flying at me,” he said.
Whit Davis told the network that he heard people yelling and running to the back as he was leaving a nightclub.
“
When they finally let us out of the club, police waved us where to walk and were telling us to get out of the area fast. I saw a few dead bodies they couldn’t even cover up and tons of people receiving first aid,” said Davis, 22.
The injured were taken to five hospitals, the city’s emergency preparedness department said.
The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed, and the Justice Department said Attorney General Merrick Garland was also briefed.
The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence, a trend that has alarmed law enforcement officials and that can be difficult to protect against.
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg last month, killing four women and a 9-year-old boy. A man who drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee in 2021 is serving a life sentence after a judge rejected arguments from him and his family that mental illness drove him to do it. Six people were killed.
An Islamic extremist was sentenced last year to 10 life sentences for killing eight people with a truck on a bike path in Manhattan on Halloween in 2017. Also in 2017, a self-proclaimed admirer of Adolf Hitler slammed his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and is now serving a life sentence.
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Stephen Smith, Kevin McGill and Chevel Johnson in New Orleans and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
